 By 1542, with a powerful friend at court in Sir Thomas Wriothesley and being owed money by Henry Stafford, he was elected MP for Stafford in the 1542 and 1545 Parliaments, and for Newcastle-under-Lyme in the 1547 Parliament.Though based in Middlesex, he developed Staffordshire links by buying the manors of Perry Barr and Handsworth.From 1542 to 1555, he was appointed to many royal commissions, some ranging over all England and Wales and some limited to Middlesex.