Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/255

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

and contained in the same manuscript volume. Aylward's and Heete's lives were used by Dr. Thomas Martyn (d. 1597?) [q. v.] for his rather untrustworthy Historica Descriptio complectens vitam ac res gestas beatissimi viri Gulielmi Wicami, London, 1597, privately reprinted at Oxford in 1690 by Dr. Nicholas, warden of New College. It was entirely superseded by the Life of Wykeham by Dr. Robert Lowth, afterwards bishop of London, first published in 1758, and quoted above in the third edition (1777), an admirable piece of work for its date, with a valuable appendix of documents. The results of subsequent investigations are to be found in the full and accurate biography by G. H. Moberly (2nd edit. 1893). Sketches of the life of Wykeham are contained in Mackenzie Walcott's Wykeham and his Colleges, 1853, and H. C. Adams's Wykehamica, 1878. An account of Wykeham's controversy with the masters of St. Cross's Hospital occurs in a manuscript at New College. His Register has been printed in two volumes (ed. T. F. Kirby, 1897, 1899) by the Hampshire Record Society. The early history of his foundations is dealt with in Canon Walcott's work mentioned above, Kirby's Annals of Winchester College (1892), A. F. Leach's History of Winchester College (1899), Dean Kitchin in Winchester College, 1393–1893 (ed. A. K. Cook), Mr. Rashdall's article on New College in Clark's Colleges of Oxford (1891), and from the architectural side in Proceedings of the Archæological Institute, 1845. The general authorities are Rotuli Parliamentorum; Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium; Calendar of Patent Rolls of Richard II, vols. i.–ii. (1377–85); Rymer's Fœdera, original edit.; Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas; Chronicon Angliæ, Walsingham's Historia Anglicana, Annales Henrici IV (with Trokelowe), and Fasciculi Zizaniorum, in the Rolls Series; Froissart's Chronicle, ed. Luce; Leland's Itinerary, ed. Hearne, 1768; Rashdall's Universities of Europe.]

J. T-t.


WYKEHAM, or more correctly WICKHAM, WILLIAM (1539–1595), successively bishop of Lincoln and Winchester, born in 1539, claimed descent from William of Wykeham [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, but was a member of a different family. He was the son of John Wickham of the manor-house of Honylands or Pentriches in Enfield, Middlesex, by his wife Barbara, only daughter and heiress of William Parker of Norton Lees in Derbyshire, and of Luton in Bedfordshire. He was educated at Eton, and was admitted a scholar at King's College, Cambridge, on 18 Sept. 1550, and a fellow on 19 Sept. 1559. He proceeded B.A. in 1560–1, commenced M.A. in 1561, and graduated B.D., in 1569. He took priest's orders before the beginning of 1566, and on 30 June 1568 was admitted a fellow of Eton, resigning his fellowship at King's College soon afterwards. About 1570 he was vice-provost of Eton College under William Day (1529–1590) [q. v.], and during the absence of the master sometimes took part in the teaching. Among those who came under his care was Sir John Harington [q. v.], who styles him 'a very mild and good-natured man,' and speaks gratefully of his 'fatherly care.'

On 11 Aug. 1570 Wickham became prebendary of the fourth stall at Westminster, and by patent dated 22 June 1571 he was appointed a canon of Windsor. He was nominated a royal chaplain before 26 April 1574, when he was recommended by Edmund Grindal [q. v.], archbishop of York, for the mastership of the Savoy Hospital (Grindal, Remains, Parker Soc. p. 349). On 23 July 1574 he was collated to the archdeaconry of Surrey, which he resigned early in 1580. On 30 May 1577 he was elected dean of Lincoln, and on 7 Sept. was installed in the prebend of St. Botolph in that church. On 2 Sept. 1579 he was collated to the prebend of Eccleshall in the cathedral church of Lichfield.

On 20 Nov. 1584 he was elected to the see of Lincoln in succession to Thomas Cooper (1517?–1594) [q. v.], who had been translated to Winchester. He was consecrated at Lambeth on 8 Dec. During his episcopate he was active in the duties of his see, and was frequently placed on royal commissions for determining local disputes. He preached at the funeral of Mary Stuart at Peterborough on 2 Aug. 1587, and expressed a charitable hope for her salvation. For this he was assailed by Martin Marprelate, who taunted him with having suggested that his hearers might meet 'an unrepentant papist' in heaven (cf. Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elisabeth, 1823, ii. 510, 512–13).

On 7 Jan. 1594–5 Wickham was elected to the see of Winchester, in succession to Thomas Cooper, and received the temporalities on 11 March, On 10 Jan., immediately after his election, he wrote to Burghley, who had been the chief instrument of his preferment, protesting against the custom of requiring the bishop to grant leases of church lands to court nominees on terms disadvantageous to the see (Strype, Annals, 1824, iv. 286–7, original in Landsdowne MS. 78, art. 10). He had the courage to protest in a similar strain against the impoverishment of the English sees, when preaching before the queen herself, and found his admonitions well received. He died at Winchester House in Southwark, before he had removed to Winchester, on 11 June 1595, and was buried on 13 June at St.