His friend Thomas Newton, in a poem prefixed to The Hive of Hunnye (1578), says: "In prime of youth thy pleasant Penne depaincted Sonets sweete",[1] and mentions his interludes, gallant lays, rondelets and songs, explaining that it was in the winter of his age that he turned to sacred lore and high philosophy.
[1] In 1550 he published Certayne Psalms ... in Englishe metre, and shortly afterward was made a gentleman of the Chapel Royal to Edward VI.
Hunnis, having some knowledge of alchemy, was to go abroad to coin the necessary gold, but this doubtful mission was exchanged for the task of making false keys to the treasury in London, which he was able to do because of his friendship with Nicholas Brigham, the receiver of the exchequer.
If the lines above his signature on a 1557 edition of Sir Thomas More's works are genuine, he remained a poor man, for he refuses to make a will on the ground that "the good that I shall leave, will not pay all I owe".
[1] In British Library Harley MS 6403 is a story that one of his sons, in the capacity of page, drank the remainder of the poisoned cup supposed to have been provided by Leicester for Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex, but escaped with no injury beyond the loss of his hair.