He was associated with George Booth's royalist rising in 1659, and served under the Duke of Monmouth, as captain of a troop of horse in the service of France in 1672.
On 5 January 1680 he was one of the petitioners who demanded the summoning of parliament with a view to passing the Exclusion Bill, and he later joined his cousin Henry Herbert (1654–1709) in promoting the Glorious Revolution.
He was made cofferer of the household to William III and Mary II.
Herbert married Lady Catherine, daughter of Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, and died without issue in 1691.
He left all his property to his nephew Francis of Oakly Park, Shropshire, son of his sister Florentia or Florence, by Richard Herbert of Dolguog.