John May (bishop)
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John May (Meye) (died 1598) was an English academic and churchman, who became
Life
He was a native of Suffolk and brother of William May. He matriculated as a pensioner of Queens' College, Cambridge, on 2 May 1544. He was appointed bible-clerk of his college, and in 1550 proceeded B.A., being elected fellow in 1550.[1] He commenced M.A. in 1553, and acted as bursar of the college during 1553, 1554, and 1555. Queens' was split in religious sympathies in the Marian period, and May belonged to the Catholic group rather than the reformers.[2]
At midsummer 1557, he was ordained priest, and on 16 November following he was instituted to the rectory of
In 1565 he was nominated one of the Lent preachers at court. On 26 September in that year he was collated by Archbishop Parker to the rectory of
Through the influence of
May died at
Works
May wrote some plays, now lost, which were acted by the members of Queens' College in 1551 and 1553. He was concerned in the compilation of the statutes given to the university by Elizabeth in 1570. Among the Tanner manuscripts in the
Family
His wife was Amy, daughter of William Vowel of Creake Abbey, Norfolk, and widow of John Cowel of Lancashire. By her he had issue: John of Shouldham, Norfolk, who married Cordelia, daughter of Martin Bowes of Norfolk; Elizabeth, wife of Richard Bird, D.D.; Alice, wife of Richard Burton of Burton, Yorkshire; and Anne, wife of Richard Pilkington, D.D., rector of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire.
Notes
- ^ "Mey, John (MY544J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Norman Leslie Jones, The English Reformation: religion and cultural adaptation (2002), p. 122.
- ^ "Parishes : Aston Sanford | British History Online".
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "May, John (d.1598)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.