John Colton (bishop)
John Colton (c. 1320 – 1404) was a leading English-born academic, statesman and cleric of the fourteenth century. He was the first Master of
Early career
Little is known of his parents, or of his early years. He was born at
Irish career
Colton spent some years at the
Like most Crown officials then, even those in
Visitation of Derry
Colton is best remembered for writing or commissioning the Visitation of Derry;[3] the actual author may have been his secretary Richard Kenmore.[4] This is an account of his ten-day tour, in the year 1397, of the Diocese of Derry. The Episcopal see of Derry happened to be vacant, and Colton took the opportunity to assert his metropolitan authority over the diocese in all matters of religion and morals.
That the visitation took place at all is remarkable: Archbishops of Armagh in the Middle Ages were usually Englishmen, to whom Ulster was an unfamiliar and hostile country. As a rule, they lived in Dundalk or Drogheda, and they rarely even visited Armagh itself, let alone anywhere more remote. Conditions in Ulster were chronically disturbed, with the Irish and English in a state of more or less continuous warfare. It has been argued that the visitation had a political purpose, namely to demonstrate that the Crown did not regard Ulster as a foreign country and that Crown officials were well able to exercise their jurisdiction in that province, even if their visits were rare in practice.[5] Colton himself had worked hard, with considerable success, in the early 1390s to persuade the Gaelic rulers of Ulster, especially the O'Neill dynasty, to make their peace with the Crown. The book, published under the title Acts of Archbishop Colton, with extensive notes by William Reeves (later Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore) in 1850, is regarded as an especially valuable source of information on life in late fourteenth century Ulster.
Colton, with a sizeable retinue, including Richard Kenmore and Thomas O'Loughran,
He wrote a number of constitutions for the regulation of each diocese under his charge, two of which survive. He also wrote two tracts on the
Unlike his two predecessors, he was little troubled by the decades-old controversy over whether he enjoyed primacy over all other Irish bishops, and in particular the Archbishop of Dublin.
Death
Colton, who had resigned his see a few days earlier, no doubt in anticipation of his final end, died on 27 April 1404 in Drogheda and was buried in St Peter's Church.
Webb calls him "a man of great talent and activity, of high reputation for virtue and learning, dear to all ranks of people for his affability and sweetness of temper".[8]
References
- ^ a b c O'Flanagan J. Roderick The Lives of the Lord Chancellors of Ireland London 1870
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Ball F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921 John Murray London 1926 pp.95-6
- ^ Reeves, William Acts of Archbishop Colton in his Metropolitan Visitation of the Diocese of Derry Irish Archaeological Society 1850
- ^ Abulafia, David ed. Church and City 1000–1500: Essays in honour of Christopher Brooke Cambridge University Press 1992 p.232
- ^ Frame, Robin Colonial Ireland 1169–1369 (1981) Reprinted Four Courts Press 2012
- ^ Essays in honour of Christopher Brooke
- ^ Reeves Acts of Archbishop Colton
- ^ Webb, Alfred A Compendium of Irish Biography 1878
Sources
Archer, Thomas Andrew (1887). . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 408–409.
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