Lauder seems to have been a poor (in the monetary sense of the word, at least) scholar, and he held some teaching posts. The DNB says he ‘appears to have entered the world, with only his literature to support him.’ Interestingly, he appended an advertisement trumpeting his abilities as a private teacher of Latin to his Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns. His poetry was mainly produced in his early years--he translated a poem into English and published a collection of sacred poems by Scots authors. Much of his career was devoted to trying to prove that Milton plagiarized his work, and Lauder got himself embroiled in a number of controversies over this. The attacks were so furious that Lauder's booksellers interrogated him about the accusations against him and put out an advertisement denouncing him in 1750. Lauder is said to have died in miserable poverty about 1771 in Barbados.