He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in June 1784, and to the degree of serjeant-at-law on 9 February 1787, and in March 1794 succeeded Sir Henry Gould the younger [q. v.] as justice of the common pleas, being at the same time knighted.
In the following June he was transferred to the court of King's bench on the resignation of Sir Francis Buller [q. v.] He was a member of the special commission that tried Thomas Hardy, Horne Tooke, and other partisans of the French republic for high treason in 1794–6, and concurred with Lord Kenyon in dismissing the prosecution for libel brought by Tooke after his acquittal against the printer and publisher of a report of the House of Commons, which reflected on him and his colleagues as disaffected to the government.
In consequence of a difference with Lord Ellenborough, he resigned his seat on the king's bench in March 1808, and returned to the common pleas, succeeding to the place vacant by the death of Sir Giles Rooke.
His health failing, he retired in Easter term 1812, and was succeeded by Sir Vicary Gibbs He died unmarried on 8 July 1814, and was buried in the church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, where there is a monument to him.
He was something of a connoisseur in art, and had a small collection of pictures, including works by Spagnoletto, Franz Hals, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Opie, Morland, and other celebrated artists, which was sold after his death.