He entered Oriel College, Oxford in 1604, and remained there for some years, pursuing the study of poetry and Roman history.

[1] He was married[2] at Hurworth in County Durham, 4 May 1617, to Frances, daughter of James Lawson, of Nesham Abbey.

He was the author of many works of very unequal merit, of which the best known is Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys, which records his pilgrimages through England in rhymed Latin (said by Southey to be the best of modern times), and doggerel English verse.

Other works are The Golden Fleece (1611) (poems), The Poet's Willow, A Strappado for the Devil (a satire), and Art Asleepe, Husband?

[3] An extract from both Drunken Barnaby and his “epitaph to Frances, (his wife)” appears in The Bishoprick Garland by (Sir) Cuthbert Sharp.