Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cholmley, Hugh (1574?-1641)
CHOLMLEY, HUGH (1574?–1641), controversialist, born about 1674, was brought up almost from infancy with Bishop Joseph Hall, their fathers being in the service of Henry, earl of Huntingdon, then president of the north. With Hall he studied at the grammar school of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, and with him went up in 1589 to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where, as Hall records in his autobiography, they were 'for many years partners of one bed.' Cholmley took his M.A. degree in 1696, and afterwards proceeded B.D.; but all traces of his college career are lost, his name appearing in the index only of the registers. In 1601 the mastership of Blundell's School, Tiverton, fell vacant, and Hall, who had at first accepted, but immediately afterwards declined, the appointment in order to become rector of Hawstead, Suffolk, recommended his 'old friend and chamber-fellow,' Cholmley was accordingly instituted, but he does not appear to have ever taken charge of the school (Harding, Hist. of Tiverton, vol. ii. bk. iii. p. 110). On 17 Feb. 1604 he became rector of the portion of Clare in Tiverton, and upon Hall's advancement to the see of Exeter in 1627 was appointed bishop's chaplain, prebendary of Exeter on 14 Aug. 1628, canon on 16 Jan. 1632, and subdean on 29 March in the same year. As some return for these favours he essayed to defend Hall against the innuendoes of Henry Burton [q. v.] in a pamphlet entitled 'The State of the Now-Komane Church. Discussed by way of vindication of the . . . Bishop of Exceter, from the weake cauills of Henry Burton. By H. C.,' 8vo, London, 1629. It is a feeble performance, and Burton easily met Cholmley's challenge and that of a younger champion, Robert Butterfield [q. v.], in his 'Babel no Bethel,' published the same year. Hall, in thanking Cholmley for what he charitably terms 'your learned and full reply/ hints ms disapproval at its publication (Works, 1837-9, ix. 424). Cholmley died on 16 Sept. 1641, and was buried two days later in Exeter Cathedral. By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Eedes of Exeter, he had a family of four sons and three daughters (Harding, Hist. of Tiverton, vol. ii. bk. iv. p. 43; Will reg, in P.C.C. 126; Evelyn).
[Hall's Works (1837-9), i. xv, xviii, vi. 164; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i. 391, 423; Rymer's Fœdera (fol.), xiz. 441; Oliver's lives of the Bishops of Exeter, p. 296.]