He was admitted at Gray's Inn in 1681 and matriculated at St John's College, Oxford, where his uncle William Levinz was president, on 26 August 1688, aged 17.
At the 1702 English general election he was defeated again but this time his petition prevailed and he was returned as Member of Parliament for East Retford on 28 November 1702.
He was returned again as MP for East Retford at the 1708 British general election, when the Whig forces were divided over the ravages of the deer in Sherwood Forest.
He presented an address from Nottinghamshire in favour of the peace in August 1712, and he voted against the French commerce bill on 18 June 1713.
He supported the government but demonstrated his Hanoverian loyalty when it was said in August 1715 that he was ‘as zealous to put the laws in execution against Roman Catholics as anybody’.
He was defeated in a close contest at the 1722 British general election of which he wrote ‘the methods of menaces and promises have been so extravagant and the corruption so open and avowed’.