He was born in Suffolk about 1559, and at an early age succeeded on his father's death to extensive landed estates.
On his return to London he, in conjunction with Thomas Pounde of Belmont, formed a Catholic Association, consisting of unmarried young men of birth and property.
They promised to live on bare necessities of their state, and to give the rest of their incomes for the good of the Catholic cause.
Through the connivance of these men the members of the association were able to receive priests and to have masses celebrated daily in their house until, after the arrival of the Jesuits Parsons and Edmund Campion in England, persecution of Catholics grew more severe.
He left the superintendence of this work to William Good, who had the pictures engraved and published, under the title of Ecclesiae Anglicanae Trophaea, Rome, 1584.