Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Siward (d.1075)

by William Hunt

SIWARD (d. 1075), bishop of Rochester, was abbot of Chertsey in Surrey, and was consecrated bishop of Rochester by Archbishop Stigand [q. v.] in 1058, after he had received the pallium from Benedict X. He assisted at the consecration of Archbishop Lanfranc in August 1070, was allowed to retain his see, and died in possession of it in 1075. At his death his church was in a wretched state, and it is said that there were not more than four canons left, and they were reduced to beggary. This bishop is confused with Siward (d. 1048) [q. v.], coadjutor of Archbishop Eadsige [q. v.], by William of Malmesbury (Gesta Pontificum, pp. 34, 36), in Dugdale's ‘Monasticon’ (i. 155), and to some extent by Godwin (De Præsulibus, pp. 56, 525).

[Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 332, 342; A.-S. Chron. an. 1058, Peterborough.]

W. H.