About 1627 he became resident at Hadleigh. He wrote the inscription upon Casaubon's tomb in Westminster Abbey. He embellished Hadleigh church and rectory with paintings and inscriptions. These pictures were mostly executed, after Goad's design, by Benjamin Coleman, a Hadleigh artist. He intended to create a public theological library there. On 22 October 1633 he was made dean of Bocking, Essex, jointly with John Barkham and later that year was appointed an ecclesiastical commissioner for England and Wales.
