At the time of his father's death, he was in England, and he managed to get possession of all the books and papers which had been bequeathed to Dr. John King and to retain them in his own hands during his life.
On 31 October 1633, while riding with a friend in St. Aldate's in Oxford, an eight-year-old boy startled one of the horses, whereupon Donne struck the child on his head four or five times with his riding-whip.
William Laud was vice-chancellor at the time, and Donne was put upon his trial for manslaughter, but acquitted.
The remnants of his father's books and papers were given by him to Izaak Walton, the younger, and some of them are to be found in Salisbury Cathedral Library.
Anthony à Wood said of Donne that "He had all the advantages imaginable tendered to him to tread in the steps of his virtuous father, but his nature being vile, he proved no better all his lifetime than an atheistical buffoon, a banterer, and a person of over free thoughts" but goes in to add that he was valued by King Charles II, and that "There is no doubt but that he was a man of sense, and parts; which, had they been applied to a good use, he might have proved beneficial in his generation.