The Congreves moved back to Staffordshire, England around 1689 during the exodus of Protestants from Ireland.
Though never called to the bar in 1691 Congreve entered the Middle Temple to study law.
It was while writing poetry and working on translations that Congreve made his first entrance into London's literary world, publishing under the pseudonym "Cleophil" Incognita (1692), "an Essay".
In the leisure thus gained he wished to "recruit his spirits, range his papers," and prepare some important chemical investigations which he proposed to leave "as a kind of Hermetic legacy to the studious disciples of that art," but of which he did not make known the nature.
His health became still worse in 1691, and his death occurred on December 30 of that year, just a week after that of the sister with whom he had lived for more than twenty years.
He was buried in the churchyard of St Martin's in the Fields, his funeral sermon being preached by his friend Bishop Burnet.
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