Byrom did not lead an ordinary provincial life. He was a member of the Royal Society while Sir Isaac Newton was president, moving in some very influential social and intellectual circles in London and elsewhere. Modern research has revealed him to be something of a man of mystery. In the first place there is the question of his political views. It was once thought that he was a closet Jacobite, but it is now suggested that he may have acted as a double agent, the "Queen's Chameleon". His views might be summed up in the verse that he composed, in the form of a toast: