In his career as lawyer, he disputed in 1695 the validity of a commitment by secretary of state for high treason in the case of the King v. Thomas Kendall and Richard Roe.
In 1696 he was counsel for the defence of Ambrose Rookwood and Peter Cook, both charged with high treason; of Cook and William Snatt, the nonjuring parsons who gave absolution on the scaffold to Sir William Parkyns; and in November he defended Sir John Fenwick, strongly deprecating the proceedings by bill of attainder, on the ground that if he were acquitted his client would still be liable to proceedings under the common law.
In June 1699 he successfully defended Charles Duncombe against a charge of falsely endorsing exchequer bills, and four months later he was elected treasurer of the Middle Temple.
Next month (November 1699) he was counsel for Seymour against Captain George Kirke, who had fatally wounded the baronet's heir, Popham Seymour-Conway, in a duel.
Shower states that he was married in Bread Street in 1682 by Samuel Johnson; his wife's name was Anne Bedford born about 1659 in Canterbury, Kent.