Career
He was better known as an antiquarian, writer, historian and local politician and wrote a number of books and pamphlets about local history and especially on the etymology of place naming, many of which are still available today. An antiquarian and etymologist, he wrote three histories of place names and a monograph on Rushall Hall, where he had lived for 29 years. He travelled widely around Britain and Ireland, earning the nickname "the man on a tricycle" after his preferred mode of traveling
He was often accompanied in his travels by the Staffordshire businessman and writer Willam Henry Robinson.
