 While his father Edward graduated Yale in 1812, Francis graduated at Yale (1860) and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University (1863), and after further study abroad practiced medicine in New York.Francis was appointed to the staff of Bellevue Hospital (1874), and to the chair of pathology and practice of medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1875–82).Francis Delafield resided for many years at 5 West 50th Street in Manhattan, New York.