He became a physician to King James in 1581. On 22 July 1597 he was appointed "Master Medicinar" to Anne of Denmark, with a salary of £400 Scots, for a role he had performed for the previous three years, having been "ready day and night to attend upon that his office and service".Raymond Lamont Brown, Royal Poxes and Potions: The Lives of Court Physicians, Surgeons and Apothecaries (Sutton, 2001), p. 76, see National Records of Scotland PS1/65 f. 245r and PS1/69 f. 143r.
