Gott was educated at Winchester and Brasenose College, Oxford and then embarked on an ecclesiastical career with a curacy at Great Yarmouth, after which he held incumbencies at Bramley, Leeds and at Leeds Parish Church, where he also founded the Leeds Clergy School. His last post, before his ordination to the episcopate, was as Dean of Worcester from 1886. In 1873, Gott erected a stone cross in Bramley to celebrate 8 years living and working in Leeds.