Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dudley, William
DUDLEY, WILLIAM (d. 1483), bishop of Durham, younger (probably third) son of John Sutton de Dudley, baron Dudley [q. v.], by Elizabeth Berkeley, his wife, was educated at University College, Oxford, proceeding B.A. 1453–4, and M.A. 1456–7. He was instituted to the living of Malpas, Cheshire, in 1457, became rector of Hendon, Middlesex, on 24 Nov. 1466, was appointed to various prebendal stalls in St. Paul's Cathedral between 1468 and 1473), and was archdeacon of Middlesex 16 Nov. 1475. Edward IV showed him special favour and made him dean of the Chapel Royal, dean of the collegiate church of Bridgnorth (1471), prebendary of St. Mary's College, Leicester (2 Aug. 1472), dean of Windsor (1473), prebendary of Wells (1475–6), and bishop of Durham (October 1476). In 1483 he was nominated chancellor of the university of Oxford in place of the king's brother-in-law, Lionel Wydville, bishop of Salisbury. He died 29 Nov. 1483, and was buried beneath an elaborate monument in the chapel of St. Nicholas in Westminster Abbey.
[Ormerod's Cheshire; Nichols's Leicestershire, i. 335; Wood's Hist. of Colleges and Halls, ii. 55, 64; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy; Godwin, De Præsulibus, p. 717.]