 According to Father John Gerard, John's involvement with Essex coincided with his conversion to Catholicism.Gerard also noted that John's household, Twigmoor Hall in Lincolnshire, was a place where "he had Priests come often, both for his spiritual comfort and their own in corporal helps", although the government's description, "a Popish college for traitors", was somewhat less favourable.Following his conversion John became "a man of exemplary life".