People: Bennett, Roger (vicar of St Oswald’s, Chester)

Sex

Male

Approx Year of Birth

1499

Marital Status

Unknown

Occupation Status

Clerk; vicar of St Oswald's, Chester

Literacy

yes

Remarks

CCEd person ID 35637

Career:  a curate at Tarporley and in 1542 under the will of the rector of Tarporley he and another curate were bequeathed 8 marks each ‘to gette them seruices’. He was instituted as vicar of the parish of St Oswald’s in 1552 (CALS EDC 2/8 ff. 59-59v) when the patron was the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral.

Further notes: At the Royal Visitation of 1559 it was found that, as unnamed vicar of St Oswald’s, he was not resident in the parish and his curate ‘dothe not declare the chapters accordingelye’. In 1562 he was admonished by the Ecclesiastical Commission in Chester and ordered not to administer communion to parishioners who could not say the Lord’s Prayer, the articles of belief and the Ten Commandments and was bound in the sum of £40 to teach the catechism to the children of the parish. However, in 1563 he signed the Three Articles with other Cheshire clergy.

He had died by 1571 in which year there was a dispute concerning his will (CALS WC 1581).

Sources:

C. J. Kitching (ed.), ‘The Royal Visitation of 1559; Act Book for the Northern Province’, Surtees Society, 197 (1975 for 1972), p. 85

Cheshire Sheaf, 3rd Series, i, p. 34; xviii, pp. 86-87

CALS EDA 12/2, f. 81 (Ecclesiastical Commission)

Causes

EDC 5/13/6 – witness to the sentence.