[2] He spent a year at the University of Glasgow, then travelled abroad for a time before becoming a fellow of Gonville and Caius College.
[3] He had a family connection with John Bramhall, Archbishop of Armagh, whose daughter was his stepmother;[4] but of more benefit to his career was his friendship with the Dukes of Ormonde.
[3] In 1704 he inherited the estate of his unmarried brother Standish, MP for Kilkenny at Talbot's Inch, and arranged his burial in St. Canice's Cathedral.
His reaction to the downfall of his great patron Ormonde, who was accused of involvement in a Jacobite conspiracy and fled to France in 1715, is unknown.
[5] In fact, the marriage had social advantages for the bishop, since Belle was the first cousin to James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos on her mother's side.