WILLIAM DOWNHAM (DOWNAM), bishop of Chester, (c. 1511 – 1577)
Qualifications: Bachelor of Arts 1541; Master of Arts 1543; Doctor of Divinity 1566 (Oxford)
CCEd person ID 65611
Career: brother of the College of Bonhommes at Ashridge, then in Buckinghamshire, until its dissolution in 1539, probably consecrated priest while there, he entered Oxford University in 1539 after the dissolution of the college. He was fellow of Magdalen College by 1543; held a number of parishes, mostly in the diocese of Lincoln all of which he had resigned by the time he became bishop of Chester; archdeacon of Brecon 1559, canon of Westminster 1560 to 1564. He was appointed chaplain to Princess, later Queen, Elizabeth.
He was consecrated bishop of Chester in May 1561 and held the see until his death in 1577, probably in late November
Further notes: Downham was probably born in Herefordshire and is unlikely to have visited the north-west before his appointment as bishop of Chester. His position as one of Princess Elizabeth’s chaplains during the reign of her Catholic sister, Queen Mary, combined with his ordination as a Catholic priest prior to the break with Rome and his perceived religious conservatism have led to accusations that he remained a Catholic. However, the fact of his marriage by 1554, probably during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary, would argue against this, since acceptance of clerical marriage was an important theological principle to Protestants. Furthermore, while he was bishop of Chester he insisted on conformity with the Elizabethan Prayer Book and seems to have attempted to follow a middle way between the two extremes of Catholicism and Puritanism, thus alienating both groups, but ‘he had an almost impossible task in remote country’ (Knighton) in one of the poorest sees in the country.
He is also often accused of laziness but he was more assiduous than many contemporary bishops in his supervision of his consistory court. When he arrived in Chester he had no experience of diocesan administration, and familiarised himself with the work of the court by attending almost every general session for the first twelve months he was in Chester and he is invariably addressed as ‘judge’ of the court, so clearly regarded its supervision as his own responsibility and duty. He occasionally presided over court hearings and he also took some depositions, seemingly taking a particular interest in matrimonial causes.
He had two sons and one, or possibly two, daughters and was characterised as ‘a milde, courteous & loueinge man, wisheinge well vnto all’ (Rogers).
Sources:
Christopher Haigh, ‘Finance and administration in a new diocese: Chester, 1541-1641’, in R. O’Day and F. Heal, Continuity and change: personnel and administration of the Church of England, 1500-1642 (Leicester, 1976), pp. 145-66
C. S. Knighton, Downham, William (1510/11-1577) bishop of Chester in , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7979
David Rogers’ History in British Library, Harley 1948, f. 86v
B. Usher, William Cecil and Episcopacy, 1559-1577 (Aldershot, 2003)
K. R. Wark, Elizabethan Recusancy in Cheshire (Chetham Society, 3rd series, 19, 1971)
F. O. White, Lives of the Elizabethan Bishops of the Anglican Church (London, 1898), pp. 167-171
‘Disbrowe-Dyve’, in Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, ed. Joseph Foster( Oxford, 1891), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp406-439 [accessed 14 January 2025]
‘Canons (to 1660): Tenth prebend’, in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857: Volume 7, Ely, Norwich, Westminster and Worcester Dioceses, ed. Joyce M Horn( London, 1992), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol7/pp80-81 [accessed 14 January 2025]
‘House of Bonhommes: The college of Ashridge’, in A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 1, ed. William Page( London, 1905), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol1/pp386-390 [accessed 14 January 2025]
