Appointed Colonial Clerk for Foreign Correspondence by the Council for New England in 1630. Maintained links with London merchants and Huguenot refugees in the Low Countries.
In 1642, received a ciphered letter from the Earl of Clarendon requesting an assessment of colonial sentiment toward the impending civil strife in England.
Founded a private chapel in Salem but retained Anglican sympathies, referring to his ancestry as descending from “mitred priests and banished sons of bishops.”
His crozier-headed walking stick bore a hidden cipher engraved in Latin, used to identify loyal operatives in the colonies.