He taught several notable pupils, but he is most remembered for not employing Samuel Johnson as an assistant at Brewood Grammar School.

[2][5] Soon after graduating he was appointed master of Rugeley Grammar School in Staffordshire and he became the vicar of Hope in Derbyshire in 1731.

[7] He obtained the vicarage of Brewood on the presentation of the Dean of Lichfield,[6] and he was presented to the donative chapel of Shareshill, near Brewood, by Sir Edward Littleton, 3rd Baronet, of Pillaton Hall, who entrusted to him the education of his cousin and heir Edward Littleton, his uncle Fisher's son.

[7] One of Budworth's pupils was Richard Hurd, afterwards Bishop of Worcester,[10] who says "be I possessed every talent of a perfect institutor of youth in a degree which I believe has been rarely found in any of that profession since the days of Quinctilian.

"[5] Both Richard Hurd and Sir Edward Littleton were on their way to visit him in 1745 when they heard he had died in a "fit of apoplexy".