Having previously served as Prior of Lytham, he denied his bishop Antony Bek the right of episcopal visitation, launching appeals to York, Canterbury and Rome.
Bek excommunicated Hoton for contumacy on 20 May 1300 and deprived him of his office the following day for disobedience, perjury and violation of monastic rule.
Lusby obeyed the pope, leaving Durham on 14 April 1302, with Hoton's proctor being put in possession of the monastery a week later.
Hoton then arrived back in Durham on 1 August 1303, only to be suspended from office by the pope on 5 March 1306 and replaced as the monastery's administrator by Bek.
Bek appointed Lusby to administer it as his proctor on 10 March, but the latter was expelled by the monks and Edward issued letters patent in April and June 1306 banning the pope's ejection of Hoton from taking place.