William Downham
William Downham, D.D.(1511–1577) was bishop of Chester.[1]
Downham was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford,[2] becoming a Fellow in 1543. He held livings at Datchworth, Ayot St Peter, Needingworth and Brington.[3] Under Mary I of England, he was chaplain to her sister Princess Elizabeth.[4] He was appointed a Canon of Westminster Cathedral in 1559; and Archdeacon of Brecon in 1560. He became bishop of Chester in 1561, shortly after Elizabeth's accession.[5]
As bishop, he was considered rather ineffectual against the Roman Catholics, preferring not to offend the gentry.[6] The reformer Christopher Goodman attacked him in 1571, as supine, on a pretext of the continuing Whitsun plays.[7]
He had further problems with the diocesan finances, being dependent on rents that could prove hard to collect.[8] He also had very few university graduates among his candidates for ordination.[9]
He died on 3 December 1577.
Family
George Downame and John Downame were his sons.[10]
Notes
- ^
"Downham, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- ^ Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Disbrowe-Dyve
- ^ CCEd
- ^ Andrew Pettegree, The Reformation: Critical Concepts in Historical Studies (2004), p. 337.
- ^ </r Bishops of Chester
- ^ Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (1975), p. 210.
- ^ Leisure and culture: Plays, sports and customs before 1700
- ^ Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (1975), p. 225.
- ^ Richard L. Graves, Society and Religion in Elizabethan England (1981), p. 78.
- ^ Benjamin Brook, The Lives of the Puritans (1813), p. 496.
