 He was apprenticed to John Cawood, queen's printer, on Candlemas Day, 1563, for ten years, and afterwards acted as secretary to Nicholas Harpsfield, last Catholic archdeacon of Canterbury, while Harpsfield was a prisoner in Fleet Prison.On the latter's death he married and set up a press on Tower Hill.In September 1578 he was confined for about a month in the Poultry Compter, a small prison run by a Sheriff in the City of London, apparently for failure to attend divine service as established by act of Parliament.