Officials: Knight, William

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WILLIAM KNIGHT

Nominally in charge of the Chester Consistory Court during his period in office as archdeacon of Chester, he delegated oversight of the court to official principals including Adam Beconsall.

WILLIAM KNIGHT, 1475/6 – 1547

Qualifications: fellow of New College, Oxford in 1493; Bachelor of Canon Law by 1504; Doctor of Canon Law by 1506 (Oxford); much influenced by a period of education in Italy

CCEd person ID 147690

Career: He was secretary to both Henry VII and Henry VIII and as such was sent abroad on a number of important diplomatic missions. He held several ecclesiastical positions, including parishes such as Preston in Lancashire and canonries including at Lincon, St Paul’s and Bangor, he was a notable pluralist.

He was appointed archdeacon of Chester in 1522 and was the last archdeacon to head the consistory court before the foundation of Chester diocese in 1541.

He was also appointed archdeacon of Huntingdon and Richmond while archdeacon of Chester. His holding of the contiguous archdeaconries of Chester and of Richmond may have facilitated their combination as the diocese of Chester in 1541 at which date he surrendered these archdeaconries and was appointed bishop of Bath and Wells. He held that see until his death in 1547; a religious conservative.

Further notes: ‘ one of the best rewarded clerical careerists of his age’. (Clark)

Sources:

Richard Clark, ‘Knight, William (1475/6-1547), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/15738

‘Kandruth-Kyte’, in Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, ed. Joseph Foster( Oxford, 1891), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp837-867

Peter Heath, ‘The Medieval Archdeaconry and Tudor Bishopric of Chester’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 20 (2) (1969), pp. 243-52

Joyce M Horn, David M Smith, Patrick Mussett, ‘Archdeacons: Chester’, in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857: Volume 11, Carlisle, Chester, Durham, Manchester, Ripon, and Sodor and Man Dioceses( London, 2004), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol11/pp45-47 

Joyce M Horn, David M Smith, Patrick Mussett, ‘Archdeacons: Richmond’, in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857: Volume 11, Carlisle, Chester, Durham, Manchester, Ripon, and Sodor and Man Dioceses( London, 2004), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol11/pp47-49

 

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