He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1779[1] and made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1784.

[1] In February 1790 he was returned to the House of Commons for East Looe, a seat he held until June the same year,[1][7] and then represented Stamford until 1801.

[9] In 1801 he was created Baron Carysfort, of the Hundred of Norman Cross in the County of Huntingdon, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom,[10] which gave him a seat in the British House of Lords.

He served as a Commissioner of the Board of Control and as Joint Postmaster General under Lord Grenville from 1806 to 1807 and was sworn of the British Privy Council in 1806.

He married, firstly, Elizabeth Osbourne, daughter of Sir William Osborne, 8th Baronet, in 1774.