A schoolmaster, Cawthorn displayed literary talent at an early age and wrote verse, especially Latin verse, throughout his life. "Abelard to Eloisa," intended as a companion piece to Pope's ‘Eloisa to Abelard,’ is his best known-work and was reprinted frequently. The DNB explains, "Much of Cawthorn's verse is in Popean couplets and is conventionally sententious." Other extant works were initially composed for recitation by Tonbridge pupils during the annual visitation by representatives of the Skinners' Company. He also published a couple of prose sermons.