 On 9 August 1586, he was examined for supposed complicity in the Babington Plot, and on 30 November 1586, he was discharged from the Fleet prison.At one point he went to Rome on a mission for the Earl of Southampton, but he returned to England to work in the English Catholic underground.He was again examined 5 March 1587, and on this occasion speaks of the well known recusant, George Cotton of Warblington, Hampshire, as his cousin.