He made his start as a clerk to a successor of his father as keeper of the manor of Laxton, one Brian de Lisle.
By 1221, he was acting as a justice in seven counties, and comes to notice in February 1221 as the author of a letter to Hubert de Burgh informing him of the route taken by the rebel Earl of Aumale and of the measures that he had adopted to secure the safety of the border.
He is described as a justice 'de banco' in 1226, and as one of the chief members of the king's court, or bench, in 1229, when he sat with other judges at Westminster to hear the case between the convent and the townsmen of Dunstable.
In return they abused the dean, and caused his goods and the lands of his nieces, his wards, to be seized on behalf of the crown.
[2] After having gained a high reputation and large possessions, he was seized with paralysis, and retired from office a few years before his death, spending the remainder of his life in prayer and almsgiving.