He was a schoolmaster at Abergavenny until, through Sir Edward Harley, he was settled at Blakeney in the parish of Awre, Gloucestershire; the living was attached to a chapel of ease there in the village.
But his successor Charles Chapman, were High Churchmen and hostile; and the new bishop of Gloucester in Robert Frampton in 1681 was bitterly opposed, as was his chancellor Richard Parsons.
[1][3][4] Edmund Calamy gave an account of an incident in the street, after Parsons had disliked a sermon by Billingsley on clerical lifestyles, then pulled his hair and abused him.
[1] Billingsley had suspensions and penalties for lack of conformity, and made compromises on conventional clerical dress and liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer.
"[5] Edward Fowler succeeded Frampton as bishop in 1691, two years after Billingsley had separated from the Church of England, and was willing to take him back into the fold.
His books are:[2] Richard Baxter had in his possession a manuscript written by Billingsley, entitled Theological Reflections on God's admirable Master-piece.