Scot

, alias Rotheram (Thomas), a munificent benefactor to Lincoln college, Oxford, was born at Rotheram, in Yorkshire, from whence he took his name, but that of his family appears to have been Scot. He rose by his talents and learning to the highest ranks in church and state, having been successively fellow of King’s college, Cambridge, master of Pembroke Hall, chancellor of that university, prebendary of Sarum, chaplain to king Edward IV. provost of Beverley, keeper of the Privy Seal, secretary to four kings, bishop of Rochester and Lincoln, archbishop of York, and lord chancellor. His buildings at Cambridge, Whitehall, Southwell, and Thorp, are eminent proofs of his magnificent taste and spirit.

He was promoted to the see of Lincoln in 1471, and we learn from his preface to his body of statutes, that a visit through his diocese, in which Oxford then was, proved the occasion of his liberality to Lincoln college. On his arrival there, in 1474, John Tristroppe, the third rector of that society, preached the visitation sermon from Psalm Ixxx. 14, 15. “Behold and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, &c.” In this discourse, which, as usual, was delivered in Latin, the preacher addressed his particular requests to the bishop, exhorting him to complete his college, now imperfect and defective both in buildings and government. Rotheram is said to have been so well pleased with the application of the text and subject, that he stood up and declared that he would do what was desired. Accordingly, besides what he contributed to the buildings, he increased the number of fellows from seven to twelve, and gave them the livings of of Twyford in Buckinghamshire, and Long Combe in

| Oxfordshire. He formed also in 14-79, a body of statutes, in which, after noticing with an apparent degree of displeasure, that although Oxford was in the diocese of Lincoln, no college had yet made provision for the natives of that diocese, he enjoined that the rector should be of the diocese of Lincoln or York, and the fellows or scholars should be persons born in the dioceses of Lincoln and York, and one of Wells, with a preference, as to those from the diocese of York, to his native parish of Rotheram. This prelate died in 1500 at Cawoud, and was buried in the Chapef of St. Mary, under a marble tomb which he had built. ¹