The committee, to whom his case was referred, reported that "he was a young man of good behaviour, and well beloved of his parish, and guilty of nothing directly but the subscribing of the declinature".
In 1648 he supported the "Engagement", and was urged by his kinsman the Duke of Hamilton to accept a chaplaincy in the army raised for the rescue of the king.
At the Restoration he was rewarded by a grant of money and the bishopric of Galloway, and along with Sharp, Leighton, and Fairfoul was consecrated at Westminster on 15 December 1661.
[1] Many of the ministers refused to submit to episcopacy, and when deprived held field meetings, which were largely attended by their old flocks.
Wodrow says: "His gifts were reckoned every way ordinary, but he was remarkable for his cunning and time-serving temper"; while one of his grandsons describes him as "mighty well seen in divinity, accurate in the fathers and church history … very pious and charitable, strict in his morals … and every way worthy of the sacred character he bore".