He was the brother of Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, the distinguished diplomat and friend of Jonathan Swift.
He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford where he was awarded BA in 1649 and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn on 4 May 1650.
[2] In July 1660, he was appointed Solicitor General for Ireland, and in May 1661, he was elected to the Irish House of Commons as member for Carlow; in September, he began acting as Speaker of the Irish House of Commons while the previous Speaker, Sir Audley Mervyn was in London.
On the death of Charles II in 1685, Temple, although a staunch Protestant was happy to continue in office under the Roman Catholic James II,[3] and so remained until the Jacobite takeover of 1689, which involved the exclusion of all Protestant office holders in Ireland; at which time he fled to England, and had his estates confiscated by the Patriot Parliament.
[2] On his return to Ireland in 1691, he was granted title to some 12,000 acres in County Sligo; these lands were confiscated from the native Irish.