[2] His main estate was in nearby West Alvington, and he also acquired lands in Somerset and Gloucestershire, which passed on his death to his eldest son.
[2] West Alvington - All Saints Church He was a member of the Middle Temple and had the reputation of being a fine lawyer.
In 1494 the temporary downfall of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, who for many years had been almost all-powerful in Ireland, led to the dismissal en masse of the Irish High Court judges, who were regarded by the Crown as being Kildare's puppets, and whose loyalty to the Crown was doubtful (with good reason, as several of them had been pardoned six years earlier for supporting the claim of the pretender Lambert Simnel to the English throne).
[1] Two years later he exchanged this place for the less onerous office of Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas.
Soon afterwards, the Earl of Kildare was restored to royal favour and was once more allowed to appoint his own men to judicial office.