[4] He became rector of Witchingham in Norfolk; in 1775 was made canon of Christ Church, Oxford; and in 1795 prebendary of Durham Cathedral.

Bathurst was privately critical of the blood expended by the British in fighting Napoleon and in 1815 he and his son (just appointed his archdeacon at Norwich) attacked the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in France.

Although frequently considered to have been a rather ineffectual diocesan and to have had a lax ordination standard, ordaining men rejected by other bishops, recent work has suggested that he had firm opinions on what made a man fit for ordination and preferred to deal with applications on a case-by-case basis, instead of applying blanket admission criteria which sometimes excluded deserving and promising candidates.

He wrote Memoirs of the late Dr. Henry Bathurst, Lord Bishop of Norwich, 1837; he issued in 1842 a supplement, with additional letters of his father, entitled An Easter Offering for the Whigs .

being a Supplement to the Memoirs of the late Bishop of Norwich, 1842, in which he concentrated criticism on the injustice of the Whig party in refusing to promote his father to a richer see.

[9] His youngest daughter Caroline de Crespigny (1797-1861) was a poet and for many years a close confidante of Shelley's cousin and biographer Thomas Medwin.