Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Inglethorp, Thomas
INGLETHORP or INGOLDSTHORP, THOMAS, D.D. (d. 1291), bishop of Rochester, appears to have belonged to a family of some note, taking its name from Ingoldesthorp in Norfolk. The first benefice he is known to have held is that of Pagham in Sussex. He held the prebendal stall of Stoke Newington in St. Paul's Cathedral, and became archdeacon of Middlesex, from which dignity he was raised to the deanery of St. Paul's in 1276-7. He also held the archdeaconry of Sudbury in August 1267 (Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 490). In 1278, as dean of St. Paul's, he gave his consent to the erection of the new church of the Black Friars between Ludgate and the river Fleet, on their removal from their original home in what is now Lincoln's Inn (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 38). Inglethorp was appointed by Edward I to the see of Rochester in succession to John de Bradfield (d. 23 April 1283). The commencement of his episcopate was troubled by disputes with the prior and monks of the convent as to some of the rights and perquisites of the see. Though these rights had been enforced by Inglethorp's predecessors, the monks asserted that the bishop had no just claim. The matter was referred to the archbishop, who made a personal visitation and decided against the bishop. The subsequent relations between the bishop and the convent were happy, and at his death the monastic chronicler, Edmund of Haddenham, summed up his character as
Vir laudabilis, mitis et affabilis,
Jocundus et hilaris, et mensa dapsilis,
who 'deserved to have his place with the blessed ones' (Anglia Sacra, i. 353). The numerous mentions of Inglethorp in Thorpe's 'Registrum Roffense' chiefly detail his dealings with the property of the see. In 1284 he was commissioned by the archbishop to reconcile the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, and that of Maidstone, after their pollution by the effusion of blood (Reg. Roffense, p.102; Annal. Monast. Dunstaple, iii. 314). A dispute having arisen between him and the abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, he excommunicated the abbot, a sentence which the king desired him to withdraw (ib. pp. 106-7). He exchanged the advowson of St. Buryans in Cornwall with Edmund, earl of Cornwall, for those of Henley and Mixbury in Oxfordshire and Brundish in Suffolk (ib. p. 200). In 1389 he carried out the 'ordinatio' of the college and chantry founded in the church of Cobham in Kent (ib. pp. 234-9). He died 12 May 1291, and was buried on the south side of the high altar of his cathedral, where his altar-tomb still remains with a mitred recumbent effigy.
[Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 353; Godwin, De Præsul. ii. 111; Thorpe's Registrum Roffense, pp. 102, 106, 201, 234, 509, 658; Custumale Roffense, p. 195.]Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.163
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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