He was admitted at Inner Temple in 1690 and matriculated at Jesus College, Oxford on 13 June 1691, aged 15.In 1700 he was called to the bar.
[2] Pugh was returned unopposed as Member of Parliament for Cardiganshire at the 1705 general election, probably by the influence of Lewis Pryse and was restored to the commission of the peace.
In Parliament he voted against the Court candidate in the division on the Speaker on 25 October 1705, and told on the Tory side on 22 January 1706.
He was present at a meeting of Tory gentlemen in Aberystwyth in 1710 when Lewis Pryse and the assembled company drank the Pretender's health on their knees.
He was a teller on 29 June 1714 in a division on the Southwark election and on 12 August 1714 presented a bill to correct mistakes in the 1714 Land Tax Act.