THOMAS DE BECKINGTON,

BISHOP OF BATH AND WELLS.

OF the parentage of this eminent person not the slightest notice has been taken by either of his numerous biographers; and as he acquired a name from the place of his birth, Beckington, a small town three miles north of Frome in Somersetshire, it is almost certain that his family was obscure. The period when he was born can only be conjectured; and for many reasons it may be assigned to about the year 1385. In consequence of his elegant person and superior understanding having attracted the regard of Bishop Wykeham, he was educated at the school founded by that prelate at Winchester, where he surpassed most of his school-fellows in his studies.1 Thence he was removed to New College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow in 1408; and he continued to enjoy that situation about twelve years, during which time he was presented to the rectory of St. Leonard's, near Hastings, in Sussex, and to the vicarage of Sutton Courtney, in Berkshire. He took the degree of Doctor of Laws, and obtained various ecclesiastical

1 Chaundler.

2 Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 573. From the Journal, it appears that in 1442 he was a Prehend of Wells.-p. 2.

dignities; being successively, Prebendary of Bedwin ; Canon of York and Litchfield; Archdeacon of Buckingham about 1435; Canon of Wells, 21st April, 1439;' and was appointed Master of the Hospital of St. Katherine's, near the Tower of London. He is said to have been also an advocate in Doctor's Commons, and afterwards Dean of the Court of Arches, in which situation, in 1429, he was employed jointly with William Linwood, Official of that Court, and Thomas Brown, Vicar General to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to draw up the form of law according to which the Lollards were to be proceeded against."

Chaundler, who was Chancellor of Wells, and subsequently Chancellor of Oxford, describes him as the most elegant man of his times; and states that he was possessed of nearly every virtue which adorns human nature. Beckington is said to have materially increased his fame by an elaborate and very learned treatise on the Salique law, which is now extant. His high reputation recommended him to his patron, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, to whom he was Chancellor; and it is most probable that he was indebted to that Prince for the appointment of Tutor to King Henry the Sixth. As early as February, 1432, he was nominated one of the ambassadors to negociate a peace with France, with an allowance of twenty shillings a day, at which time he was one of the King's counsellors; and it is certain that he was attached to the mission which was sent in June 1435 to Arras, in Artois,

1 Anglia Sacra.

3

2

* Kippis's Biographia Britannica, vol. ii. p. 114. Fœdera, tome x. pp. 500, 514, 527, 530.

with the object of effecting peace with France, as his diary containing an account of the proceedings is preserved; but his name does not occur in the instructions issued by Henry on the occasion. In May, 1439, he was one of the ambassadors on a similar mission, and to treat for the release of the Duke of Orleans, his Journal of which embassy still exists; and before December in

1

Anglia Sacra, v. 1. p. 573. The MS. containing it is said to be the Cottonian MS. Tiberius, B.VI. which has been since lost; but a contemporary copy of the contents of that volume, will be found in the Harleian MS. 4763, which is thus described in the Catalogue :

"Codex membranaceus, benè scriptus.

1. Opus Thomæ Beckington, Episc. Batho-Wellensis, 1441, de Jure Regis Angliæ ad Franciam, quoad in Bibl. Cott. Liber. B. VI. et alibi extat. Titulus rubricatus, incuriâ fère deletus, hujusmodi est, Opus collectum et compilatum per venerabilem patrem Thomam, Bathon. et Wellens. Epm. ex literis, allegationibus, conclusionibus, conventionibus, et tractatibus, nonnullisque alias negotiis concernentibus jus et titulum regis Angliæ ad regnum et coronam Franciæ, cum aliis multis quæ ea occasione secuta sunt. Incipit feliciter.'-Vide Tanner, Bibl. Brit. Hib. sub Beckington. Inseritur, inter alia, F. Petrarchæ Ecloga 12. Latino Carmine, quasi idem argumentum illustrans. 2. Vita Henrici Quinti, Regis Angliæ, carmine elegiaco Latino. An eodem auctore? Scriptor quisquis fuerit, hæc narrat in prologo. Non tamen omnia quæ sunt facta per ordinem, in Latinis versibus continentur, que in alio libro prosaicè studui explanare sed pauca de multis substantialia sub compendio volui anno ne forte lectorem contingeret tedio omittere quæ sunt ntt'io memoranda." Argumentum plenissimum regnum Henrici in annos et capitula digerit.

4 Cotton. MS. Tiberius, B. XII. of which the following imperfect account occurs in the Catalogue: "Codex partim membran : partim chart: in fol: min incendio nimium corruptus, constat hodie foliis 235.

1. Opus collectum et compilatum per ven: patrem Thomam (Beckington?) Bathon et Wellens. episcopum, ex literis, allegationibus, conclusionibus, conventionibus, et tractatibus, nonnullisque aliis negotiis et materiis concernentibus jus et titulum regis Angliæ ad regnum et coronam

2

that year he was styled the King's Secretary. On the
20th May, 1442, he was joined in a commission with
Sir Robert Roos, and Edward Hull, Esquire, to nego-
ciate a marriage between the King and the daughter
of the Count of Armagnac, on which occasion an
attendant, probably one of his Chaplains, wrote
the Journal in the following pages, which supplies
us with many interesting particulars respecting his
conduct in that affair, and throws some light upon
his character. The result of that embassy having
been already noticed, it will only be remarked that
Beckington and his colleague, Sir Robert Roos, re-
turned to England in February 1443. In July fol-
lowing he was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal,
with an allowance of twenty shillings a day; but he
seems to have resigned that office in the ensuing Fe-
bruary. His long services were at length rewarded
by his being elected Bishop of Bath and Wells in Sep-
tember 1443: and he was consecrated in the King's Col-
lege of Eton, by the Bishop of Lincoln, assisted by
the Bishops of Salisbury and Landaff, on the 13th of
October, on which day "it was hallowed, and he sung
the first mass in the same."
." He must have been then
nearly sixty years of age, and his public life may be said
almost to have closed with his consecration though; he is
recorded to have been a trier of petitions in Parliament
in 1444,7 1447,8 1449,9 1450,10 and 1453;" and on the

Franciæ; cum aliis multis quæ ea occasione ecuta sunt.
de eodem argumento; adeo mutili ut vix usui forent.
1 Fœdera, tome x. p. 742. 2 Ibid. tome xi. p. 7.
Anglia Sacra, vol. i. p. 574.

4 Ibid.

5

7 Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 67.

2 Alii tractatus

3 Ibid. p. 58.

Godwin's Catalogue

6

27th of March, 1450, he was one of the Peers who were in the King's palace at Westminster, when sentence of banishment was pronounced against the Duke of Suffolk. On the 18th of June, 30 Henry VI. 1452, the Bishop of Bath obtained a license from the King to exempt him from attending Parliament, on account of his age and infirmities; and after that monarch's death, his successor, Edward the Fourth, granted him a similar indulgence by patent, dated 11th July, in the first year of his reign, 1461.3 Whether from his advanced age, or in consequence of the loss of his patron, the Duke of Gloucester, or from a desire to die Bishop of the diocese in which he was born, an ambition neither extraordinary in its nature, nor of unfrequent occurrence, Beckington was never translated; but continued in the peaceable enjoyment of his See of Bath and Wells until his decease. Chaundler says, that he experienced the kindness of Beckington for four years, whilst he was Chancellor of Oxford, but Anthony Wood denies, with much reason, that he ever held that appointment; and he is not included in the catalogue of Chancellors, printed by Le Neve.*

Of the manner in which Bishop Beckington employed great part of his time and of the revenues of his see, we have still splendid evidence, and so long

4

1

Fadera, vol xi. p. 311,

2
Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 182.
3 Rot. Parl. vol. vi. p. 227.

Some writers consider that he is the person whom Le Neve describes as Thomas Gascoigne, who was Chancellor in 1442, and from 1443 to 1445; but that individual was Master of Oriel College, and Vice Chancellor in 1434 and 1439, (Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicana, pp. 442, 447,) situations which have never been attributed to Beckington; moreover for six months, in 1442, he was in Guienne.