His parents died before he was ten years of age, and he inherited extensive estates in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, much reduced, however, by litigation in Chancery.
Journeys were also made by land, and, among others, the entertaining author of the Crudities, Thomas Coryate, of Odcombe in Somersetshire, wandered on foot from France to India, and died (1617) in the company's factory at Surat.
It lies near the border of Somersetshire, on the southern slope of a hill overlooking the river Yeo, in a fertile, well-wooded district.
He reduced Vectis (Isle of Wight) and penetrated to the borders of Somersetshire.
An excellent portraiture of early Quakerism is given in William Tanner's Lectures on Friends in Bristol and Somersetshire.