When the Davies university scholarship for classics was established, he was, in 1810, the first to win it, and in 1812 he was elected a Fellow of his college.
In 1815 he went on the midland circuit as marshal to Sir Alan Chambré, read in the chambers of Godfrey Sykes, and of Joseph Littledale.
He joined the northern circuit, and there, in competition with Edward Hall Alderson and James Parke, came to the fore in pleading.
On 2 February 1852 he was sworn of the privy council, and for some years served as a member of its judicial committee.
Patteson also acted as a commissioner to examine into the state of the City of London in 1853, was frequently chosen arbitrator in government questions—such as disputes between the Crown and Duchy of Cornwall, and between the Post Office and the Great Western Railway—and his award terminated a long-standing rating dispute between the university and the town of Cambridge.
One of their sons, John Coleridge Patteson, was ordained in the Church of England, became a missionary and the first Bishop of Melanesia, and, after his martyrdom in 1871, is remembered annually on the liturgical calendar on 20 September.