Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chishull, John de
CHISHULL, JOHN de (d. 1280), bishop of London, was probably born in Essex in the village of Chishall, between Royston and Saffron &€Valden, from which he doubtless took his name. A branch of his family was afterwards settled at Bardfield in the same county (Morant, Essex, ii. 523, 609; Fuller, Worthies, p. 325). In 1252 he was appointed rector of Isleham in Cambridgeshire, and in 1256 he received from the king the church of Upwell in Norfolk. Previously to 1262 he had become archdeacon of London, and in that year acted as executor for Bishop Wingham (see for all his early preferments Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum, i. 59, from the Patent Rolls). He was by profession a lawyer as much as an ecclesiastic. A little later his name begins to appear in public records as a clerk of Henry II and a member of his council. In January 1263 he was sent with Imbert of Montferrand to take to Paris Henry's answer to a letter of Louis IX, with reference to the proposed peace with Simon of Montfort ({{sc|Shirley, Royal Letters, ii. 234). The joint letter of the envoys to the king dated 16 Feb. gives a full account of their proceedings (ib. ii. 242). At. the end of the year Chishull was one of the royal otlicers present at the drawing up of the document by which Henry agree to accept Louis’ arbitration (ib. ii. 252; Rymer, i. 434, Record ed.) In 1264 he had become a baron and chancellor of the exchequer, received with his colleagues the royal order to keep open the exchequer as formerly, and in the same year held pleas in the same capacity (Madox, Exchequer, ii. 53; Abbrev. Plac. p. 155). Soon after he received the custody of the great seal, though only apparently ns an official responsible for its safe keeping (Foss, ii. 296). On 25 Feb. 1265 he surrendered it to the king, to be immediately transferred to Thomas of Cantilupe. On 30 Oct. 1268 he again received the seal into his custody, resigning it in Jul 1269. He is never definitely spoken of as chancellor, nor does he call himself such in the series of charters of Spalding priory which he witnessed in this year (Cole MSS. vol. xliii. if. 230, 234). In 1270 Chishull became treasurer. With the barons of the exchequer he presented a report to the royal council suggesting certain improvements, especially repeating to the manner of entering the sheriff’s earl accounts, which, having been approved by the council, he was directed by the king to carry out (Madox, ii. 170). Meanwhile he had shown activity in other directions. As archdeacon of London he published in 1267 the legate’s renewed excommunication against the disturbers of the peace of London at the time of Gloucester's threatened revolt. In the summer of 1268 he was one of the commissioners sent by the king to Montgomery to decide disputes arising from the recent peace with Llewelyn of Wales (Rymer, i. 477). He had, a little previously, subscribed a grant of lands by Peter of Savoy to Queen Eleanor (ib. i. 476), and had witnessed a charter of 26 March 1268 conferring a fresh privilege on the Londoners (Liber de Antiquis Legibus, p. 105). In the autumn of 1270 he was appointed, being then treasurer, to receive in the hustings court or at Paul's Cross the fealty oaths of the Londoners to Henry and his heirs (ib. 128). So many services to the state received their due reward with ecclesiastical benefices. In 1264 or 1265 the king appointed him provost of Beverley on the death of John Mansel (Newcourt, Repertorium, from Rot. Pat. 49, H. iii. m. 24; the earlier dates given in Poulson's Beverlac, 647 and Dugdale's Monasticon, vi. 1307 seem less trustworthy). About the end of 1268 (on 17 Aug. of that year he is still only archdeacon, Rymer, i. 477) he became dean of St. Paul's but without resigning his provostship. Late in 1273 the bishop of London died. Neither the new King Edward I, nor the new archbishop Kilwardby had as yet arrived in England, and the chapter availed themselves of their unwonted freedom to freely choose their next bishop. Special messengers from Gascony brought back the royal lecense to elect, and on 7 Dec. the chapter chose their dean. With the same caution that had previously marking the action of the chapter, Chishull proceed in person to Gascony to obtain the royal consent to his election. This obtained he got from Kilwardby the archepiscopal confirmation and permission to be consecrated in his absence by any bisholp he liked. On Sunday, 29 April 1274 Chishull was consecrated at Lampeth Palace Chapel. Immediately on the conclusion of the ceremony, he hurried by water to St. Paul’s, where his enthronement completed the steps of his appointment (the fullest accounts of his election are in Wykes s. a. and Liber de Ant. p. 163). Not very much is recorded of his acts as bishop. He was probably already growing old or in fail ing health. In 1276 he appears as one of the councillors advising Edward to refuse to listen an longer to Llewelyn’s excuses, as signing the episcopal admonition addressed to the Welsh prince, and as sending his military service to the campaign of 1277. In 1278 his acting as co-dedicator of the new cathedral then consecrated with such solemn pomp at Norwich was almost his last share in public life (Cotton, p. 157). In 1279 his summons of the bishops to Reading, as dean of the province, and again his summons of the clergy of his diocese to grant an aid to the king, at the end of the year, were merely formal acts (Register of Peckham, vii. lxvii, Rolls Ser.) The vigilant eye of the energetic Franciscan, now archbishop, soon detected his inability to fulfil his episcopal functions. In Novemher 1279 Peckham s ‘Supplemental Injunctions to the Nuns of Barking’ shows his disapproval of the milder recommendations of their diocesan (ib. lxx). Immediately after he held an archiepiscopal visitation at St. Paul’s, which convinced im of Chishull’s complete infirmity. On 2 Feb. 1280 Peckham assigned to the treasurer of St. Paul’s the custody of his seal, and on 6 Feb. gave him, in conjunction with the dean and Fulk Lovel, archdeacon of Colchester, power to act for the infirm bishop (ib. lxxvi, lxxix). Next day (7 Feb. 1280) Chishull died (Kalandar and List of Obits in Simpson's Documents illustrative of History of St. Paul’s, Camden Soc. Some of the chroniclers, whom modern biographers have invariably followed, wrongly date his death on 8 Feb.) He was buried in St. Pau1’s on the north side opposite the choir. During his episcopate the chapel at the east end of his cathedral was built. He also founded and endowed a chantry and presented much costly plate and rich ornaments to his cathedral.
[The chronicles in Annales Monastici, Rolls Ser. especially Wykes; Liber de Antiquis Legibus (Camden Soc.); Annales Londiuenses in Stubbs’s Chronicles of Edward I and Edward II (Rolls Ser.); Patent Rolls; Martin’s Registrum Epistolarum J. de Peckham (Rolls Ser.); Simpson’s Documents illustrative of the History of St. Paul’s (Camden Soc.); Rymer’s Fœdera, vol. i. (Record ed.); Shirley’s Royal Letters of the Reign of Henry III, vol. ii. (Rolls Ser.) Short lives are in Wharton, De Episcopis et Decanis Londinensibus, pp. 101-3 and 210, supplemented in vol. i. of Newcourt’s Repertorium, especially p. 69; Foss’s Judges of England, ii. 296-7; Godwin, De Præsulibus; Hardy’s Le Neve, ii. 287. Campbell’s few remarks in Lives of the Chancellors, 1. 167, are, as usual, of no value.]