Ordained a deacon, he was preparing to take up a living in Derbyshire when he was invited to London by his patron Jonas Moore, Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. Moore had recently made an offer to the Royal Society to pay for the establishment of an observatory. These plans were, however, preempted when Charles II was persuaded by his mistress, Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth, to hear about a proposal to find longitude by the position of the Moon from an individual known as Le Sieur de St Pierre. Charles appointed a Royal Commission to examine the proposal in December 1674, consisting of Lord Brouncker, Seth Ward, Samuel Moreland, Christopher Wren, Silius Titus, John Pell and Robert Hooke.