He was first engaged on parliamentary debates for the Gentleman's Magazine, his reports being revised by Samuel Johnson.
He gradually made a reputation as a political writer, and in 1745 received a pension of £200 a year from the Pelham administration.
About 1764–7 he published, along with collaborators, A General History of the World, from the Creation to the Present Time, in twelve volumes; this was favourably noticed in The Critical Review, it was said by the author himself.
[1] Probably his most noted book was his Geographical, Historical, and Commercial Grammar (1770), which reached numerous editions, and was translated into French in 1801.
Besides translations from Quintilian (1756) and Cicero (1744–54–55–58), he also wrote The Friends, a sentimental novel, in two volumes (1754), and Remarks on English Tragedy (1757).