On 16 November 1616 he was made Recorder of London in spite of Francis Bacon's opposition, who, although allowing him to be "a well trained and an honest man", objected that he was "bred by my Lord Coke and seasoned in his ways".

He disapproved of the king's sudden dissolution of parliament, and agreed to the liberation on bail of the seven imprisoned members on condition of their giving security for their good behaviour.

[5] He passed sentence of death on Lord Audley in 1631, drafted and enforced the proclamation of 20 June 1632 ordering the country gentlemen to leave London, and in 1634 joined in William Laud's attack on the Earl of Portland for peculation.

[5][6] He voted in Star Chamber in 1633 to remove the Irish judge Lord Sarsfield from office for corruption, censuring him severely for hearing a murder case in private and for bullying the jury into returning a guilty verdict.

[8] Bulstrode Whitelocke accuses him of mediocrity, but his contemporaries in general have united in extolling his judicial ability, his quick despatch of business and his sound and sterling character.

He describes him as having "in the plain way of speaking and delivery a strange power of making himself believed", as a man of "not only firm gravity but a severity and even some morosity", as "rather exceedingly liked than passionately loved".