He was a Royalist during the Civil War, during which he was Governor of Pendennis Castle, Falmouth, which he held during a five-month-long siege in 1646 by Parliamentarian forces, at the end of which his forces were reduced by hunger to eating their horses. He obtained an honourable surrender, but in 1651 compounded for delinquency in the sum of £10,000, later reduced to £2,000. He married Mary Cary, a daughter of George I Cary (1543–1601) of Clovelly, Devon, Sheriff of Devon in 1587, who constructed the harbour wall at Clovelly. By Mary Cary he had children including: