John Moreton

, Son (a)(a) In the Visitation book of the County of Surry, made by the Deput [•] es of Clarenceaux King of Arms, an. 1623. in the coll. or Office of Arms. of Rich. Moreton of S. Andrews Milbourn in Dorsetshire, Son of Will. Moreton of the said place, and he the second Son of Charles Moreton (the first being Rob. Moreton of Moreton in Nottinghamsh. from whence sprang the Moretons of Bautrey in Yorkshire) was born saith (b)(b) In Birtan. in com. Dorset. Camden at St. Andr. Milb. before mention’d, others, particularly one (c)(c) Jo. Budden in Vita obituꝫ Job. Moreton [•] Archiep. Cant.—Lond. 1607. p. 5. of Camdens contemporaries, at a little Market Town call’d Bere in the said County of Dorset, which seems to be most true by those things that I shall anon mention from his last Will and Testament. When he was a boy he was educated among the Religious in Cerne Abbey, and at ripe years was sent to Balliol coll. where making great progress in Academical learning, he took the degrees in the Laws, without any regard had to those in Arts. In 1446. he being then in his Regency, he became one of the Commissaries of the University, about which time one Will. Moreton of the same coll. was the northern Proctor, but whether related to him, I cannot tell. Afterwards Jo. Moreton was Principal or moderator of the Civil Law School, situated in the Great Jewry in Oxon, and about 1453. became Principal of Peckwaters Inn: at which time he being also an Advocate in the Court of Arches, his parts and great learning were so remarkable, that Tho. Bouchier Archb. of Canterbury taking cognisance of him, sought means to prefer him. In 1458. Nov. 8. he became Prebendary of Fordinton and Writhlington in the Church of Salisbury, void by the death of one Will. Walesby, being also about that time Rector of S. Dunstans Church (in the West) in the Suburbs of London. Afterwards having other spiritualities conferr’d upon him. he was for his great wisdom and prudence made Master of the Rolls an. 1473, and in the year following Archdeacon of Winchester: which Dignity was then void by the death of one Vinc. Clement sometimes a Doctor of Oxon: In Feb. 1475, he being then Preb. of Dynre in the Church of Wells (which he resign’d in that month, and was succeeded therein by Mr. Will. Dudley) he was collated to the Prebendship of S. Ducuman in the said Church on the death of one Joh. Pope: which Dignity he keeping till Jan. 1478. he then gave it up and Tho. Langton Doctor of Decrees succeeded him, as I shall anon tell you. In 1476. Nov. 6. he was made Archdeacon of Berkshire upon the resignation of John Russell Doctor of the Canon Law, (not of Div. as one (d)(d) Fr. Godwin Ep. Lan [••] v. in Com de Praesul. Angl. edit. 1616. p. 359. saith) who was afterwards Bishop of Lincoln. In 1478. Aug. 9. he was elected Bishop of Ely, on the death of Will. Grey, and about that time was made Privy Councellour to the King. In 1484. (2. Rich. 3.) he was committed prisoner to the Tower of London, for some jealousies that that King had of him, as being totally inclined to the Lancastrian family; and ’tis probable that there he would have continued during all that Kings raign, but the reverence of the man, or undeservedness of his wrongs, moved so the affection of the members of this University, that they directed to the King (who professed much seeming love to the University, as ’tis elsewhere (e)(e) In Hist. & Antiq. Univ. Oxon, lib. 1. p. 233. told you) a petitionary (f)(f) In lib. Episto [•] arum Univ. Oxon. [•] . fol. 14 [•] . b. Epistle in Latine, no less eloquent and pithy, than circumspect and wary, wherein they much pleaded for his liberty. Whereupon the K. being well pleased with it, was content to release him from the Tower, and commit him to the custody of Henry Duke of Buckingham, to his Castle at Brecknock in Wales. Thence, after he had spent some time, he found liberty to steal to the Isle of Ely, and for a round sum of money found a safe passage into France, purposely to joyn with the Earl of Richmond to pluck down the said Rich. 3. Soon after the said Earl obtaining the Crown by the name of Hen. 7. called unto his Privy Council the said Moreton Bishop of Ely, with Rich. Fox, (about that time B. of Exeter) both vigilant men and discreet, and such as kept watch with the King almost upon all men else. They were both vers’d in his affairs before he came to the Crown, and were partakers of his adverse fortune, and therefore the King was resolved to promote them in the Church as high as he could. In the beginning of the year 1486. Archbishop Bouchier before mentioned died; whereupon the K. making means that the Monks of Canterbury should elect Dr. Moreton for his Successor, the Pope did forthwith confirm it. So that being translated to the said See, he had restitution (g)(g) Pat. 2. Hen. 7. p. 1 m. 10: made to him of the temporalities belonging thereunto, on the sixth of Decemb. the same year. In 1487. he was made Lord Chancellor of England, in which high office he acted very beneficial for the King, and in 1493. he was declared a Cardinal by Pope Alexand. 6. under the title of S. Anastasius. The year after he was elected Chanc. of the Univ. of Oxon, and became a considerable benefactor thereunto, particularly to the reparation of Canon Law School in S. Edwards parish, to the finishing of the re-edification of S. Maries Church, and of the edification of the Divinity School. In all which places were his Arms set up in colours, in the Windows, or else engraven in Stone. But such is the vicissitude of time, that nothing of Arms, or any thing like them, doth at this time remain. Those that belonged to him were Quarterly gules and ermine, a Goats head erased in the first and fourth quarter argent: given, or else taken, in allusion to the Arms of the Corporation of Shomakers, of which Corporation the Father of this Archb. was, as ’tis said, a member. They were curiously engraven on Stone, at the bottom of the Stone-pulpit in St. Maries Church; as also the rebus of his name, an M. upon a Tun. Which Pulpit was pulled down when the inside of that Church was alter’d, while Dr. Ralph Bathurst was Vicechancellor an. 1676. They were also engraven on the Respondents Pew or Seat of Stone in the Divinity School, which also were taken away when the inside of that School was altered an. 1669. to what it now is. But tho these monuments are decayed, yet the memory of the person is fresh among some men, who have said that he was a wife and eloquent man, but in his nature harsh and haughty, that he was much accepted by the King, but envied by the Nobility, and hated by the people. He won the Kings mind with secrecy and diligence, chiefly because he was his old servant in his less fortunes, and for that also he was in his affections not without an inveterate malice against the House of York, under which he had been in trouble. Whatsoever else was in the man, he deserveth a most happy memory, in that he was the principal means of joyning the two Roses. At length dying of great years, (about 90.) but of strong health and powers, about the latter end of Septemb. in fiveteen hundred, 1500 was buried in the Cath. Church of Canterbury before the image of the Virgin Mary, commonly called Our Lady of Vndercroft. Over his Stone-coffin or Sepulcher, which was but just deposited in the ground, was a marble-stone laid even with the surface of the pavement: which stone being afterwards crack’d and broken, several parts of his body wrap’d up in divers Cear-cloathes were taken away by certain rude and barbarous people. At length the head being only in a manner remaining in the said Stone-coffin, ’twas beg’d out of a pious mind (purposely to save it) of Dr. Sheldon Archb. of Canterbury, in 1670. by that truly noble and generous Rophe Shedon of Beoley in Worcestershire Esquire, who esteeming it as a choice relique, provided a leaden box to preserve it with its Cear-cloathes about it, and with great devotion kept it to his dying day, an. 1684. Afterwards that choice relique, with very many rarities which he in his life time had gathered together, came by vertue of his last Will into the hands of his Uncles Daughter, named Frances Sheldon, sometimes one of the maids of honour to Catherine the Royal Consort of King Charles 2. The said Cardinal Moreton did by his last (h)(h) In Offic. Praerog. Cant. in reg. Moon Qu. 10. Will and Testament leave maintenance for a Priest to celebrate Mass for 20. years space in the Church of Bere in Dorsetshire, for the Soul of him the said Archbishop, and for the Souls of his relations and parents buried there. He also left maintenance during that time for 20 poor Scholars in Oxon, and ten in Cambridge. I find one John Moreton to be made Prebend of Whitchurch in the Church of Wells, on the resignation of Robert Stillington (afterwards B. of Bath and Wells) in July 1447. and Minister of Axbridge and Charlton Mesgrose in the Dioc. of B. and Wells; but this John Moreton, who died about the month of Dec. 1463. is, in the registers belonging to the Bish. of B. and Wells, written Sacrae Theologiae Professor. I find also another Joh. Moreton who translated into English Speculum Vitae Christi, written by S. Bonaventure. Which John was living in 1438, in which year, he, with his Wife Juliana, were admitted among the Suffrages and Prayers of the Dominicans or Black Fryers at York.