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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Billingham, Richard

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1308525Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 05 — Billingham, Richard1886Reginald Lane-Poole

BILLINGHAM or BULLINGHAM, RICHARD (fl. 1350), a schoolman, whose name appears on the rolls of Merton College, Oxford, between 1344 and 1350 (Tanner, Bibl. Brit. p. 100), is mentioned by Wood (Antiquities of Oxford, i. 447 seqq.) as having been concerned in a riot arising about an election to the chancellorship of the university in 1349. Tanner states that he became a priest of Sion, but as that religious house was not founded until 1414 we must suppose that he has confounded two different persons. Billingham's works, all of a theological and scholastic character, are enumerated by Bale, 'Script, Brit. Cat.' vi. 8. Among the numerous ways in which the name is spelled, the only one that calls for special notice is Gillingham, and this is easily accounted for as a palæographical blunder.

[Authorities cited above.]