He was
called to the bar at
Gray's Inn on 27 November 1800, admitted an advocate in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts, and a fellow of the
College of Doctors of Law on 8 July 1803. On 28 February 1828 he was appointed
king's advocate-general, and knighted on the same day at
St. James's Palace by George IV. He became
vicar-general to the
Archbishop of Canterbury in 1832, but resigned that place and the office of advocate-general on 21 October 1834, on his appointment as
official principal of the arches and judge of
prerogative court of Canterbury. On the 29th of the same month his name was added to the list of
privy councillors. He assumed the additional surname of Fust on 14 January 1842 on succeeding to Hill Court, Gloucestershire, and Capenor Court, Somersetshire, which had belonged to his deceased cousin, Sir John Fust. The fellows of
Trinity Hall elected him
Master in February 1843; but he never resided there, although he held this appointment, in conjunction with the
deanery of the arches, to his decease. His name came very prominently before the public in the
Gorham case,
Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter. In this case, which lasted three years (1847–50),
Henry Phillpotts, charging the clergyman
George Cornelius Gorham with
heresy, refused to institute him to the vicarage of
Brampford Speke, Devonshire. In the end Gorham was instituted on 7 August 1850, under an order made by the dean of the arches. Fust's decree of 2 August 1849 in this matter was the subject of much debate, and led to the publication of at least eighty pamphlets. ==Later life and death==