1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lloyd, William

LLOYD, WILLIAM (1627–1717), English divine, successively bishop of St Asaph, of Lichfield and Coventry, and of Worcester, was born at Tilehurst, Berkshire, in 1627, and was educated at Oriel and Jesus Colleges, Oxford. He graduated M.A. in 1646. In 1663 he was prebendary of Ripon, in 1667 prebendary of Salisbury, in 1668 archdeacon of Merioneth, in 1672 dean of Bangor and prebendary of St Paul’s, London, in 1680 bishop of St Asaph, in 1689 lord-almoner, in 1692 bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and in 1699 bishop of Worcester. Lloyd was an indefatigable opponent of the Roman Catholic tendencies of James II., and was one of the seven bishops who for refusing to have the Declaration of Indulgence read in his diocese was charged with publishing a seditious libel against the king and acquitted (1688). He engaged Gilbert Burnet to write The History of the Reformation of the Church of England and provided him with much material. He was a good scholar and a keen student of biblical apocalyptic literature and himself “prophesied” to Queen Anne, Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, William Whiston, and John Evelyn the diarist. Lloyd was a stanch supporter of the revolution. His chief publication was An Historical Account of Church Government as it was in Great Britain and Ireland when they first received the Christian Religion (London, 1684, reprinted Oxford, 1842). He died at Hartlebury castle on the 30th of August 1717.