William Piers

son of William Piers a Haberdasher of Hats, Nephew, or near of kin, to Dr. John Piers sometimes Archb. of York and a Native of South Hinxsey near Abendon in Berks, was born in the Parish of Allsaints within the City of Oxon, in Aug, and baptized there on the 3. of Sept. an. 1580. In 1596 he was made Student of Ch. Church, and taking the degrees in Arts, fell to the study of Divinity, and was for a time a Preacher in and near Oxon. Afterwards being made Chaplain to Dr. King Bishop of London, he was prefer’d to the Rectory of S. Christophers Church near to the Old Exchange in London and Vicaridge of Northall in Middles. In 1614 he proceeded in Divinity, being about that time Divinity Reader in S. Pauls Cathedral, and in 1618 he was made Canon of Ch. Church, and soon after Dean of Chester. In 1621. 22. 23. he did undergo the office of Vicechancellour of this University, wherein behaving himself very forward and too officious against such that were then called Anti-Arminians, he gained the good will of Dr. Laud then a rising star in the Court, and so consequently preferment. In 1622 he was made Dean of Peterborough in the place of Hen. Beaumont promoted to that of Windsore, and in 1630 had the Bishoprick thereof confer’d on him, by the death of Dr. Tho. Dove, to which being elected, he had the temporalities thereof given ((b))((b)) Pat. 6. Car. 1. p. 24. to him on the 30 of Oct, and installation on the 14 of Nov. the same year. While he sate there, which was but for a short time, he was esteemed a man of parts, knowing in Divinity and the Laws, was very vigilant and active for the good both for the ecclesiastical and civil estate. In Oct. 1632 he was elected Bishop of Bath and Wells, upon the translation of Dr. Curle to Winchester; the temporalities of which See being given ((c))((c)) Pat. 8. Car. 1. p. 14. to him on the 20 of December the same year, he continued there, without any other translation, to the time of his death. As for his actions done in his Diocese of Bath and Wells before the grand rebellion broke out, which were very offensive to the puritanical party, (who often attested that he brought innovations therein and into his Church, suppressed Preaching, Lectures, and persecuted such who refused to rail in the Lords Table, &c. in his Diocese) let one of them named William Prynne a great enemy to the Hierarchy ((d))((d)) In his book called Canterburies Doome. speak, yet the reader may be pleased to suspend his judgment, and not to believe all what that partial, cropear’d and stigmatized person saith. When the Bishops were silenc’d, and their Lands sold by that Parliament, called by the faction the blessed Parliament, he lived retiredly on a considerable estate of his own, (sometimes at Cudesden near Oxon) and married a second Wife, which is well known to all the neighbourhood there; yet the said Mr. Prynne would needs perswade ((e))((e)) In his book entit. A new discovery of some Romish Emissaries, Quakers, &c. Lond. 1656. qu. p. 32. us “that he was reduced to such extremity that in November 1655 he went to an honorable Knight of his acquaintance in Westminster and complained to him that he had not bread for him and his to put in their mouthes, intreating his favour to procure any Lect. or Curates place for him tho never so mean (which he, by all the friends he had, could no where obtain) to keep him from starving. Whereupon the Knight minded him of his former speeches and cruelty towards other Lecturers and Ministers, whom (as he added) he reduced to extreme poverty; wishing him to take special notice how God had justly requited him in his own kind, so as himself would now turn Lecturer, or the meanest Curate under others, in his old age, to get but a meer subsistence, and yet none would entertain him, as himself confessed, in any place. So as the judgment threatned against Ely his posterity, 1. Sam. 2.36. was then actually fallen on that great Prelate, &c.” In 1660 he was restored to his Bishoprick, and by the great fines and renewings that then came in, he was rewarded in some degree for his sufferings: but his said second Wife, too young and cunning for him, got what she could from the children he had by his first Wife, and wheedling him to Walthamstow in Essex got thousands of pounds and his plate from him (as the common report at Wells is) which of right should have gone to his said Children. He died at that place in the month of Apr. in sixteen hundred and seventy,1670. and was privately buried in the Parochial Church there by the care of his said Wife. He hath two Sermons in print, preached during his restraint in the Tower with other Bishops that were committed thither by the Parliament an. 1641, both on 2. Cor. 12.8.9.—Lond. 1642. qu. He left behind him a Son of both his names, actually created D. of D. an. 1661, tho of lesser merit than sufferings, and another called John Piers, who being a Lay-man, had a Lay-prebendship in the Church of Wells bestowed on him by his Father. He lived mostly at Denton in the Parish of Cudesden near Oxon, (where his Father had setled an estate on him) and dying 28. Nov. 1670, was buried in the Church at Cudesden: whereupon his Prebendship was converted to the use of a Clergy-man.