Ordained deacon in 1848 and priest in 1853, he followed his friend (archbishop William Thomson) to the diocese of York in 1865, and held various ecclesiastical appointments there. After seven years (1867-74) as archdeacon of York, he was appointed bishop of S. David's in 1874, and held the see till his death at Abergwili on 14 Jan. 1897. He m. (1), 10 Sept. 1856, Frances Charlotte Holworthy, who d. without issue 21 Sept. 1881, and (2), 6 Dec. 1886, Anne Loxdale, of Aigburth, near Liverpool, who, with a son and two daughters, survived him. He is buried in the family vault at Llangynfelyn.

As bishop of S. Davids he continued and developed the work of his two predecessors, Thomas Burgess and Connop Thirlwall (qq.v.). He raised the standard of spiritual, pastoral, and educational work in the diocese, and effected a considerable reorganization of the diocesan machinery. He was able to speak Welsh, though not fluently, but he had little regard for the separate nationhood of Wales. His scholarship was displayed by such works as The Vestiges of the Gael in Gwynedd, 1851; The History and Antiquities of S. David's (with E. A. Freeman), 1852-7; editions of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus, 1862, 1866; and various addresses and sermons.