[vii]
cerning leases of Cathedral property and the proper method of inducting prebendaries. It was not his intent to force these differences to a breach between the Dean and the Archbishop; but rather to ingratiate himself into favor at the palace so that Dr. Gilbert might be kindly disposed to a new and questionable scheme on which his heart was now set. On searching the records, he had discovered that the patent of the Commissaryship of the Exchequer and Prerogative Courts—his best paying office—had formerly been granted and enjoyed for two lives instead of for one life, as was then the custom. He naturally wished a revival of the good old times. So he went to the Archbishop in the summer of 1758, and asked him for permission to open his patent of the office, which read for one life only, and "to add the life of another proper person to it," meaning thereby, as it quickly transpired, the name of his own son. That son, then a mere boy, lived to be Edward Topham, playwright and libertine.
The Archbishop was inclined to agree to the plan out of gratitude to Dr. Topham for his many services; but the Dean and Chapter, whose concurrence was necessary to complete the transaction, were hostile to the proposal. That the question of the appointment, which threatened to divide the Church of York, might be settled peaceably, the Dean, Dr. Topham,
