Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fuller, John (d.1558)
FULLER, JOHN (d. 1558), master of Jesus College, Cambridge, was a native of Gloucester. He was educated at All Souls' College, Oxford, where he was admitted to the B.C.L. degree in July 1533, and became a fellow in 1536. He graduated D.C.L. in January 1546, and in the same year admitted himself a member of Doctors' Commons. In 1547 he was rector of Hanwell, Middlesex, but resigned the charge in 1551, having in 1550 been appointed vicar-general or chancellor to Thirlby, bishop of Norwich. At about the same time he became vicar of Swaffham, and rector of East Dereham and North Creake in Norfolk. On Thirlby's translation to the diocese of Ely, Fuller went with him as chancellor, and on 24 Sept. 1554 was installed his proxy in Ely Cathedral. In November following he was collated prebendary of the fifth stall. As chancellor he was also examiner of heretics, and condemned several, his judgment seldom inclining to leniency. He was proctor for the clergy of the diocese in two convocations, and held other preferments, being rector of Wilbraham, Fen Ditton, and Hildersham, Cambridgeshire. He resided in Queens' College, Cambridge, and when in London had rooms in Paternoster Row. He succeeded Pierpoint as master of Jesus College, Cambridge, in February 1557. In the following May he was elected to the prebend of Chamberlainwood in St. Paul's, London. He died 30 July 1558, and was buried, according to his directions, in the choir of Jesus College, to which institution he bequeathed one-third of his property, besides founding four fellowships. One-third he left to the poor of certain parishes, and the remainder to his cousins William and Margaret. His specific legacies included 13l. 6s. 8d. to All Souls' College, and two of his best geldings to the Bishop of Ely.
[Cole MSS. vii. 110, 203; Bentham's Hist. of Ely, p. 253; Shermanni Hist. Coll. Jes. Cant., ed. Halliwell, p. 37; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 188; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. i. 358, ii. 375, 496; Newcourt's Repert. Eccl. Lond. i. 136; Foxe's Acts and Monuments (ed. 1847), vii. 402, viii. 378; Blomefield's Norfolk, iii. 633, vi. 225, vii. 74, x. 210; Cooper's Annals of Cambr. ii. 83; Strype's Eccl. Mem. i. pt. i. p. 544; Lansdowne MS. 980, fol. 233 b; Coote's Civilians, p. 37; Boase's Reg. of Univ. of Oxford, i. 169.]