 During his residence at Oxford he is said to have become a noted philosopher, poet, mathematician, and geographer.One of his pupils at the university was Sir William Morice, secretary of state 1660–8, a politician with religious views similar to his tutor's Calvinism.Matthew Sutcliffe nominated him a member of Chelsea College, and Archbishop James Ussher brought him to Ireland, where he was appointed schoolmaster of the king's wards in Dublin (wards being minors of property whose parents were Roman Catholics).