He entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as a sizar, on 29 March 1644, and had William Sancroft as a tutor, He graduated B.A.
In 1654 he was a member of the committee for ejecting scandalous ministers in the four northern counties of Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland, and Westmorland.
From that year until 1660, when he was driven from the living, he held the rectory of the portions of Clare and Tidcombe at Tiverton.
On the 1687 Declaration of Indulgence, the Steps meeting-house was built at Tiverton for the members of the Independent congregation; he was appointed its first minister, with Samuel Bartlett as assistant.
[1] It has been said that she may be the playwright "Elizabeth Polwheele", a contemporary of Aphra Behn and Frances Boothby.