Appointed King's Attorney of Bedford May 3, 1756, Major of Lunenburg Militia in 1761, Colonel of Charlotte Militia December 3, 1764. Member of House of Burgesses from Charlotte 1765-1775, King's Attorney of Mecklenburg November 3, 1767, Botetourt May 4, 1770, Lunenburg October 1770, County Lieutenant of Charlotte April 11, 1772, Clerk of Halifax November 17, 1772. Member of the State Convention August, 1774, Chairman of Charlotte County Committee 1774-1776. Member State Conventions March 1775, July 1775 and December 1, 1775. Member of First Committee of Safety August to December, 1775, and Second Committee of Safety January to July, 1776, Convention of May 20 to July 5, 1776. House of Delegates 1776 to 1778, State Convention 1788. Member of Committee to Draft Bill of Rights and Constitution, was one of the Charter Trustees of Hampden-Sidney College.
He was a member of the First General Court in 1778. In 1779, he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, which position he held until 1807, when he resigned at the age of seventy-five years. His letter of resignation to Governor William H Cabell begins thus: "I have served my country for forty-two years without intermission, twenty-nine of those years devoted to the judiciary department, and being now in the seventy-fifth year of my age. I think it my time to retire from public business to the exalted station of a private citizen." He died in the year 1818 and is buried at Mulberry Hill.