In 1741 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. With his brother, Charles Yorke, he was one of the chief contributors to Athenion Letters; or the Epistolary Correspondence of an agent of the King of Persia residing at Athens during the Peloponnesian War (4 vols., London, 1741), a work that for many years had a considerable vogue and went through several editions.
He sat in the House of Commons as member for Reigate (1741-1747), and afterwards for Cambridgeshire; and he kept notes of the debates which were afterwards embodied in Cobbett's Parliamentary History. He was styled Viscount Royston from 1754 till 1764, when he succeeded to the earldom. In politics he supported the Rockingham Whigs. He held the office of teller of the exchequer, and was lord-lieutenant of Cambridgeshire and high steward of Cambridge University. He edited a quantity of miscellaneous state papers and correspondence, to be found in manuscript collections in the British Museum. He married Jemima Campbell, only daughter of John, 3rd earl of Breadalbane, and granddaughter and heiress of Henry de Grey, duke of Kent, who became in her own right marchioness de Grey.
In default of sons, the title devolved on his nephew, Philip.
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