He graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in June 1852, then studied law and was admitted to the Delaware Bar in New Castle County in 1861.

He was clerk of the Delaware House of Representatives in 1857 and during the Civil War served as commissioner of the federal army's draft for New Castle County in 1862.

He was not a candidate for renomination, and was appointed Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court in 1893.

He also served as the inaugural president of the Board of Trustees of then-Delaware College for Colored Students outside of Dover (legislatively renamed in 1893 as the State College for Colored, and which is currently Delaware State University).

The Charles B. Lore Elementary School at Wilmington was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.