A native of Lincolnshire, after his education at St. John's, Cambridge he was ordained and eventually became Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth I.
In Curteys' episcopate, the cost of supporting many residentiaries and providing hospitality, could not be funded by the relatively small income of Chichester Cathedral.
In 1565 he proceeded B.D., and made a complaint against Richard Longworth, the Master of his College, and William Fulke one of the fellows, for non-conformity.
[3] During Curteys epicopate, revenues from Chichester Cathedral were described as "very small" and the profits were distributed to "a multitude of residentiaries".
Accordingly, between the years 1573-74 the constitution was changed to save money and the amount of residentiaries reduced to five (including the dean).
In 1579 he was called upon to deprive his brother Edmund of the vicarage of Cuckfield and of a canonry in Chichester as "a lewd vicar, void of all learning, a scoffer at singing of psalms, a seeker to witches, a drunkard, &c." The Bishop ducked the task, and subsequently the Bishop of London was directed to proceed to the deprivation of the delinquent.
Another incident involving his intolerance to different faiths, he visited Joachim Gans who in speaking "in the Hebrue tonge," proclaimed himself a Jew.
It had a preface, signed by about forty preachers, commending him for the good he had done in his diocese, especially by suppressing "Machevils, papists, libertines, atheists, and such other erroneous persons."
and his translation from English into Latin of the first part of Bishop John Jewel's answer to Thomas Harding's Confutation are among the manuscripts in the British Museum (Royal Collection, 8 D.