He visited England to discuss the state of Irish affairs with the English Crown.
He also relied on the expert advice of another English-born cleric, Ralph de Norwich, who was later an unsuccessful candidate for Archbishop of Dublin.
In 1230 the Exchequer was able to send the English Crown 2000 marks, the result of a highly successful tax of one-sixteenth on ecclesiastical benefices.
St John also acted as a justice in eyre, and as Chief Escheator for Ireland.
[1] In later life he rather faded from the public eye, and his precise date of death is uncertain, although it was probably in the summer of 1253.