Officials: Beconsall, Adam

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ADAM BECONSALL

Official of the archdeacon of Chester from about 1522 until his resignation in 1535, he sometimes presided over the Chester consistory court and unsuccessfully attempted to establish another permanent consistory court at Bury.

ADAM BECONSALL (BEKENSALL/ BECANSAW)

Qualifications: Bachelor of Canon Law 1518-19; Doctor of Canon Law 1529-30 (Cambridge)

CCEd person ID 74790

Career: appointed by William Knight, archdeacon of Chester, as his chancellor or ‘official’ in 1522 until he resigned, probably in 1535, 1535 to become one of the commissioners for the visitation of religious houses of Wales. Appointed to an unnamed Welsh prebend by 1535. While official of the archdeacon of Chester he carried out visitations and also aimed to enforce attendance at the consistory court by holding sessions in south Lancashire, as well as in Chester. To this end he established a second court at Bury, but this did not last for long. In 1535 he reported to Thomas Cromwell on his efforts to reform behaviour in the diocese of Chester, describing the lawlessness and immorality which he had observed, particularly among the clergy and laity of Cheshire. He also noted that the diocesan officials took bribes.

 Further notes: Adam Beconsall was probably a son of Edward Beconsall of Beconsall in Lancashire.

 Possibly also rector of Brington with Bythorn and Old Weston (diocese of Lincoln) 

 Sources:

Henry Fishwick (ed.), Pleadings and Depositions in the Duchy Court of Lancaster time of Henry VIII, part 2 (The Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 35, 1897), pp. 138-146

Christopher Haigh, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 2-4

Anthony N. Shaw,  The Compendium Compertorum and the Making of the Suppression Act of 1536’ (PhD thesis, University of Warwick, 2003), pp. 156-165

John Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, part I, volume 1 (London, 1922), p. 121

‘Henry VIII: April 1535, 1-10’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8, January-July 1535, ed. James Gairdner( London, 1885), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol8/pp188-202 [accessed 14 January 2025](vol. 8 nos 495, 496 (1 and 2))

‘Prebendaries: Unidentified’, in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300-1541: Volume 11, the Welsh Dioceses (Bangor, Llandaff, St Asaph, St Davids), ed. B Jones( London, 1965), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1300-1541/vol11/pp46-48 [accessed 14 January 2025]

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