near Huntly, in Aberdeenshire. His father was the Rev. Alexander Bisset, D.D., chancellor of Armagh, who died in 1782. William Bisset. who was born 27 Oct. 1758, was, like his father, educated at Westminster, where he was admitted a king’s scholar in 1771, and at Christ Church, Oxford, to which he was elected a scholar in 1775, and where he took his degree of B.A. 4 Nov. 1779, and proceeded M.A. 7 Feb. 1782 (Cat. Oxford Graduates). He was presented in 1784 to the rectory of Dunbin, in the county of Louth, which he resigned upon his collation, 31 Jan. 1791, to the prebend of Loughgall, or Leval-leaglish, in the cathedral church of Armagh. In 1794 he became rector of Clonmore, and in 1804 was collated, on 29 Sept., to the archdeaconry of Ross, in what had been, since 1583, the united episcopate of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross. In 1807 he resigned his prebendal stall of Loughgall in order to become rector of Donoghmore, and was appointed, 1812, to the rectory of Loughgilly. All his preferments, with the exception of the archdeaconry of Ross, were within the diocese of Armagh. A few years afterwards he was appointed to the chancellorship of Armagh, to which he was collated on 23 August 1817, thus succeeding his father after an interval of twenty-five years. As his final preferment, Bisset was promoted by the Marquis of Wellesley, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, 1821–1828, to the bishopric of Raphoe. His patent was dated 5 June 1822. He administered the affairs of the diocese with general approval. On the death of Dr. Magee, archbishop of Dublin, 19 Aug. 1831, Bisset was pressed to become his successor, but he declined on the ground of increasing infirmities. He built several churches in his diocese, and expended a considerable sum of money on the improvement of the palace at Raphoe; and when the parliamentary grant was withdrawn from the Association for discountenancing Vice, his lordship supplied the loss. Bisset died 5 Sept. 1834, whilst on a visit to his nephew at Lessendrum. His clergy erected to his memory a monument in the cathedral, with an inscription by W. Archer Butler. At his death the see of Raphoe became annexed to that of Derry. The authorship of a ‘Life of Edmund Burke,' London, 1798, was erroneously claimed for him, the real author being Robert Bisset, LL.D. [q. v.]
[Douglass Baronage of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1798; New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xii. Edinburgh, 1844; Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ; Cork Evening Herald, quoted in the Record, 15 Sept. 1834; Dublin Evening Mail, quoted in the St. James's Chronicle, 16 Sept. 1834.]
BIX, ANGEL (d. 1695), Franciscan friar, after filling the office of confessor to the Poor Clares at Aire, and to the community at Princenhoff, Bruges, was sent to England, and became chaplain to the Spanish ambassador in London in the reign of James II. He died early in 1695 whilst guardian of his order at York. Bix preached ‘A Sermon on the Passion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Preach'd before her majesty the queen-dowager in her chapel at Somerset House, upon Good Friday, 13 April 1688;’ published by royal authority, London, 1688, 4to, and reprinted in ‘A Select Collection of Catholick Sermons,' 2 vols., London, 1741.
[Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 491; Oliver's Hist. of the Catholic Religion in Cornwall, 545; Cat. of the Grenville Library; Lowndes's Bibl. Man., ed. Bohn, 2243.]
BIZARI, PIETRO (1530?–1586?), an Italian historian and poet, long resident in England, was born at Sassoferrato in Umbria, or, according to some writers, at Perugia, whence he is sometimes called Petrus Perusinus. When young he went to Venice, but having adopted the reformed faith he left that city for England. He describes himself as ‘an exile from Italy, his native country, by reason of his confession of the doctrine of the gospel' (Original Letters relative to the English Reformation, ed. Robinson [Parker Soc.], 339). He was patronised by the Earl of Bedford, and on 4 July 1549 was admitted a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, by the royal commissioners for the visitation of the university, being incorporated there in the same degree which he had taken ‘in partibus transmarinis’ (Baker, Hist. of St. John's College, ed. Mayor, i. 285 n). It does not appear how he disposed of himself during the reign of Queen Mary. If he left England he returned in the reign of Elizabeth, for in 1567 Bishop Jewel, at the instance of Archbishop Parker, gave him the prebend of Alton Pancras in the church of Sarum, worth 20l. a year (Stype, Life of Abp. Parker, 255 fol.) Failing in his expectations of receiving church preferment in this country, he obtained, in 1570, a license from secretary Cecil to go abroad, partly for the purpose of printing his own works, and partly to collect news of foreign affairs for the English government. He passed some time at Genoa, though at what precise period it is difficult to determine, for he appears to have led a very migratory life on the continent, and the various statements which have been made respecting his place of abode cannot be easily reconciled with one another. Passing to Germany he
