 His family was said to have held 'the most extensive estates in Rutland during the late sixteenth century'.He entered the Inner Temple in 1558, and was elected a Member of Parliament for Rutland in 1571.He was a Commissioner of the Peace for Kesteven from about 1559 to 1593, and was a servant to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester in the Netherlands in 1585 and was Keeper of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire (1588–1590) for Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick.