[1] In 1387 he was knighted and embarked on a public career, being chosen as a commissioner of gaol delivery for Newcastle-upon-Tyne in February and sitting on a royal commission to investigate rival claims to the manor of Eslington at Whittingham in July.
[1] In February next year he was again a commissioner of gaol delivery at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and sat on six different royal commissions: to survey Bamburgh Castle in February; to impose order on the garrison at Berwick-upon-Tweed in March; to deal with concealments in March; to examine measures for weighing coal exports in April; to assess damage by Scottish invaders in May; and to settle the estates of Henry Delaval in November.
Also in 1389 he was appointed as Captain of Roxburgh Castle and as a justice of the peace for Northumberland, holding both offices for the rest of his life.
In the Parliament of 1390, convened in January, he was once more an MP for the county and in both March and May served again as English envoy to Scotland regarding arrangements for peace talks.
[1] His growing local, national, and international influence ended with his early death on 12 February 1391, aged about twenty-nine.