Born at Milborne St Andrew in Dorset, he was probably educated at Balliol College, Oxford. After graduating with a BCL in 1448, he practised law in ecclesiastical courts, including the Court of Arches, being appointed rector of Shellingford (Berkshire) in 1453. He was made prebendary of Sarum in 1458, rector of St. Dunstan's (in the West), archdeacon of Norwich circa 1460. He became a government lawyer with the Lancastrian party and drafted the Bill of Attainder against Richard, Duke of York in 1459. He was captured after the Battle of Towton and attainted, but escaped into exile, joining Queen Margaret in France, where he was Keeper of the Privy Seal to Henry VI in the Lancastrian government in exile and graduated in theology from the University of Louvain in 1469.