[1] He belonged to the well-known Catholic Anderton family who lived at Lostock Hall, Lostock, in the parish of Bolton le Moors, in Lancashire, and inherited a large estate from his parents, Christopher and Dorothy Anderton.
In 1603 he signed a loyal address from all the gentry of Lancaster welcoming James I on his progress to London.
It has been claimed, most notably by the nineteenth-century Catholic biographer Joseph Gillow, that the real author of these works was his nephew, the Jesuit Laurence Anderton, although this assertion has been proved to be spurious in recent years.
[4] Anderton was responsible for setting up a Catholic press at his brother's home of Birchley Hall, approximately 13 miles (21 km) from Lostock.
He left £1500 to the maintenance of the Catholic priesthood in England, a sum of money that the Privy Council and Bishop of Chester became interested in capturing.