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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Arundell, John (d.1504)

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1904 Errata appended.

686653Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 02 — Arundell, John (d.1504)1885William Prideaux Courtney

ARUNDELL, JOHN (d. 1504), successively bishop of Lichfield and Coventry and of Exeter, was the younger son of Humphry Arundell of Lanherne, by Joanna, sister and heir of Sir John Coleshill of Tremoderet. After having enjoyed 'the first taste of the liberal arts and sciences' in a college of Augustine monks at St. Columb, Cornwall, he remained at Exeter College, Oxford, until he took the degree of M.A., when he was immediately presented by his father to the rich rectory of St. Columb, and during his residence there built a parsonage house and moated it round with rivers and fish-ponds. A variety of preferments quickly followed his presentation to this family living. He became rector of Duloe in Cornwall in 1474, and of Sutton Courtney about 1479. In the latter year he was appointed to a canonry at Windsor, and a few years later prebendal stalls at York and Salisbury were conferred upon him. From 1483 to 1496 he held the deanery of Exeter, when he vacated it to become bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, a bishopric which he resigned for that of Exeter in 1502. His death took place in the episcopal palace within the parish of St. Clement Danes, London, on 15 March 1504, and he was buried on the south side of the altar of the parish church, under a tomb of marble inlaid with brass. A fragment of the inscription to his memory is printed in Weever's 'Ancient Funeral Monuments' (p. 444). Bishop Arundell is said to have been conspicuous for his love of learning and his hospitality towards the poor.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (ed. Bliss), ii. 692-3; Oliver's Bishops of Exeter, pp. 116-17; Bibliotheca Cornub. iii. 1038.]

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.9
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

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146 ii 26 Arundell, John (d. 1504): after living insert He became treasurer of Hereford in 1464 and prebendary in 1476