 He was a staunch Methodist, like a great many of the 1820 settlers of the Eastern Cape, who was strongly involved in Church and Missionary activity.He was a prominent leader of the Cape's Methodist community, friends with other powerful churchmen such as John Ayliff, Henry Hare Dugmore and Henry Calderwood among others and, together with such men, formed a powerful business clique.They also formed the majority of the municipal commissioners in the Eastern Cape.