Richard Bancroft

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Farnworth, Lancashire, England
Died2 November 1610 (aged 66)
Lambeth, Surrey, England
BuriedLambeth
NationalityEnglish
DenominationAnglican
Alma materChrist's College, Cambridge, Jesus College, Cambridge

Richard Bancroft (1544 – 2 November 1610) was an English churchman,

King James Bible
.

Life

Bancroft was born in September 1544 at

Widnes, Cheshire, second son of John Bancroft, and his wife Mary. His mother was the daughter of James Curwen and niece to Hugh Curwen, Archbishop of Dublin from 1555 to 1567, then Bishop of Oxford until his death in November 1568.[1]

He was initially educated at the local grammar school, founded by bishop William Smyth, also from Farnworth.[2] He became a scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge in 1563, and graduated BA in 1567, MA in 1570 (at Jesus College, Cambridge), DD 1585.[3]

He was older than most students, reportedly due to money problems, and apparently more successful at sports than study; in 1564, his uncle Hugh obtained a sinecure for him at St Patrick's, Dublin.[4] Ordained about that time, he was named chaplain to Richard Cox, then bishop of Ely, and in 1575 was presented to the rectory of Teversham in Cambridgeshire. The next year he was one of the preachers to the university.

In 1584 he was made

Puritans. He described their speeches and proceedings, caricatured their motives, denounced the exercise of the right of private judgment, and set forth the divine right of bishops in such strong language that Sir Francis Knollys, the Puritanically inclined Treasurer to the Household, held it to amount to a threat against the supremacy of the crown.[5]

In the following year Bancroft was made a

Lord Keeper
.

In 1600 he was sent on an embassy, with others, to

Queen Elizabeth
.

Archbishop of Canterbury

In March 1604 Bancroft, on Whitgift's death, was appointed by royal writ president of convocation then assembled; and he there presented a book of canons collected by himself. It was adopted and received the royal approval, but was strongly opposed[6] and set aside by Parliament two months afterwards. In the following November he was elected successor to Whitgift in the see of Canterbury. He continued to show the same zeal and severity as before, and with so much success that Lord Clarendon, writing in his praise, expressed the opinion that "if Bancroft had lived, he would quickly have extinguished all that fire in England which had been kindled at Geneva."

In 1608 he was chosen chancellor of the

authorized version of the Bible. He died at Lambeth Palace
on 2 November 1610.

Discovery of his coffin

In 2016, during the refurbishment of the Garden Museum,[7] which is housed at the medieval church of St Mary-at-Lambeth,[8] 30 lead coffins were found; one with an archbishop's red and gold mitre on top of it.[9][10] On one of these coffins, a metal plate served to identify it as being that of Bancroft.[11]

See also

References

  1. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6966. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ Foster, Alan (1981). A History of Farnworth Church, Its Village and Parish.
  3. ^ "Bancroft, Richard (BNCT563R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  4. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1272. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  5. doi:10.1017/S0022046900054683
    .
  6. ^ Babbage, S. B. (1962). Puritanism and Richard Bancroft. London: S.P.C.K. pp. 192–193.
  7. ^ Museum web-site
  8. ^ British History on-line
  9. ^ Times on-line
  10. ^ "Remains of five archbishops of Canterbury found under London museum". NBC News. 17 April 2017.
  11. ^ The Sunday Telegraph 'Lost in Lambeth: the tombs that time forgot' p17 Issue no 2,913, 16 April 2017

External links

Church of England titles
Preceded by Bishop of London
1597–1604 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Canterbury
1604–1610 		Succeeded by
George Abbot
Academic offices
Preceded by
Chancellor of the University of Oxford

1608–1610 		Succeeded by
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