[2] In 1857, he married Anna Maria Witty, the daughter of the inventor Richard Whitty,[3] and relocated to Warwickshire, where he became the owner and editor of the Coventry Herald.
In the late 1860s and early 1870s, he founded various journals aligned with the Liberal Party,[2][4] culminating in the Royal Leamington Chronicle, which gave considerable space to supporting agricultural labourers.
In the summer, he founded the rival National Farm Labourers' Union, which promoted the establishment of allotments and smallholdings, and opposed strikes.
He attempted to reorganise the sugar industry in Queensland, and then found work as chief commissioner for the Chaffey Brothers, returning to England in the late 1880s.
He wrote the widely-circulated book, The Australian Irrigation Colonies, to promote British workers moving to Australia to work for the Chaffeys.