Becoming dissatisfied, he conformed to the Church of England around 1786, with his friend Samuel Badcock, and for some years kept an academy in Devon.
[1] His first independent publication appeared in 1792, entitled An Essay towards the History of Bideford, 1792.
Chapter x. consists of the depositions in a trial for witchcraft held at Exeter on 14 August 1682.
In 1796 appeared The Peeper: a collection of Essays, Moral, Biographical, and Literary (London, 1796; 2nd edit.
It went through several editions, the last in 1827, and was translated into French, with additions, in 1803 by Jean Baptiste L'Écuy (fr).