As deputy to Sir Edward Walker, he went on a mission to Dresden and invested John George II, Elector of Saxony on 13 April 1669 with the Order of the Garter.
In 1690 he appointed a deputy to deliver the Garter to a Continental recipient, but the following year he undertook the task himself as William III was to attend the ceremony.
[2] Following his first wife's death, he married Anne (d. 1721), daughter of Sir John Lawson and widow of William Attwood in 1692.
In 1693, he and his brother Sir Henry were appointed commissioners for the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire of London.
According to Mark Noble, "he died more esteemed as a good, and more respected as an elegant man, than praised for his knowledge".