Walter Blandford

son of a father of both his names, was born at Melbury Abbats in Dorsetshire, became a Servitour or poor Scholar of Ch. Ch. an. 1635, aged ((a))((a)) Reg. Matric. PP. fol. 28. b. 19 years, admitted Scholar of Wadh. Coll, on the 1 of Oct. 1638, at which time he said he was born in 1619, took the degrees in Arts, and in 1644, Jul. 2, he was admitted Fellow of the said Coll. In 1648 when the Visitors appointed by Parliament to eject all such from the Univ. that would not take the Covenant or submit to their power, they did not eject him, which shews that he did either take the Covenant or submit to them; and about the same time obtaining leave to be absent, he became Chapl. to John Lord Lovelace of Hurley in Berks and Tutor to his son John, to whom also afterwards he was Tutor in Wadh. Coll. In 1659 he was elected and admitted Warden of that Coll, and in the year after, in Aug. he was, among many, actually created D. of D, being about that time Chapl. to Sir Edw. Hyde L. Chanc. of Engl, who obtained for him the same year a Prebendship in the Ch. of Glocester, and a Chaplainship in ord. to his Majesty. In 1662 and 63 he did undergo the office of Vicechanc. of this Univ, not without some pedantry, and in 1665 he being nominated Bishop of Oxon, on the death of Dr. Will. Paul, was elected thereunto by the Dean and Chapter of Ch. Ch. on the 7 of Nov, confirmed in S. Maries Ch. in Oxon on the 28 of the said month, and on the 3 of Dec. following, in the same year of 1665, (the K. and the Q. with their Courts being then in Oxon) he was consecrated in New Coll. Chap. by the Bishops of London, Glocester and Exeter. Soon after he was made Dean of the Royal Chappel, and upon the death of Dr. Skinner, was translated to the See of Worcester in the Ch. of S. Mary Savoy in the Strand near London on the 13 of June 1671. This Dr. Blandford who lived a single man, and never at all was inclined to Marriage, died in the Bishops Pallace at Worcester, on Friday the 9 of July in sixteen hundred seventy and five,1675. and was buried in the Chappel next beyond the east end of the Choir belonging to the Cath. Ch. there, commonly called Our Ladies Chappel. Afterwards was set up in the Wall that parts the said Chap. and the east end of the Choire, a monument of Northamptonshire marble, and in the middle of it was fix’d a black marble table, with a large inscription thereon, part of which runs thus. H. S. I. Gualterus Blandford SS. T. P. &c. ad primorum Ecclesiae temporum exempla factus, & futurorum omnium natus: summis honorum fastigiis ita admotus, ut perpetuo super invidiam, citra meritum consisteret: non seculi artibus, assentatione, aut ambitu, sed pietate, modestia, animi dimissione & dignitatum fuga clarus. Ab Academiae gubernaculo ad Ecclesiae clavum, (quaeque anceps magis procuratio) ad conscientiae Principis regimen evocatus, muneribus omnibus par, quasi unico impenderetur. Nimirum eruditione recondita Academiam, sanctissima prudentia Dioecesim, illibata pietate Aulam, illustrabat. Donec perpetuis laboribus, & morbo diutino (quem invicta animi constantia tolleraverat) confectus, facultatibus suis Deo, Ecclesiae, Pauperibus distributis, &c. ’Tis said in the Epitaph, that he died in the year of his age 59, and on the 16 of July, which should be the 9, as I have told you before. In the See of Worcester succeeded him Dr. Jam. Fleetwood, as I shall tell you elsewhere.