After the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, he refused to swear allegiance to the new regime of Mary II and William III, and lost his positions as a result.

The family was related to the Talbot Earls of Shrewsbury, and originated from Salwarpe, Worcestershire; they acquired Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire through his grandmother, Olive.

[1] He also had four half-brothers from his father's second marriage to Mary Washburn; George, Edward, who was killed in the First English Civil War, William (died 1686), and Francis.

During the 1642–1646 First English Civil War, he tried to persuade the Venetians to provide financial assistance to Charles I, while devising schemes for confiscating Parliamentarian merchant ships in Constantinople.

[7] Tiverton fell on 19 October; taken prisoner, Talbot was exchanged, and made his way to Oxford, which surrendered in June 1646, bringing the First Civil War to an end.

[9] He retired to Dartmouth, and took no part in the 1648 Second English Civil War; in 1650, he was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to restore Charles II, and held in Gloucester gaol.

[11] He acted as intermediary in secret discussions between Charles and Frederick III in August 1665, over an attack on a Dutch merchant fleet taking shelter in the Norwegian port of Bergen.

After the November 1688 Glorious Revolution, both he and his nephew Sir John Talbot refused to swear allegiance to the new regime of Mary II and William III, and lost their positions as a result.