Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jane, Thomas
JANE or JANYN, THOMAS (d. 1500), bishop of Norwich, was born at Milton Abbas, Dorsetshire, and educated at Winchester School, where he became a scholar in 1449. He proceeded as a scholar to New College, Oxford, and became a fellow there in 1454, and subsequently doctor of decrees, and commissary of the chancellor (an official corresponding to the later vice-chancellor) in 1468. Thomas Kemp, bishop of London, nephew to Archbishop Kemp, appears to have become Jane's patron, and gave him much preferment. The first benefice conferred on Jane was Burstead in Essex, 9 April 1471, and in the same year he was appointed prebendary of Reculverland in St. Paul's Cathedral, which he exchanged for that of Rugmere in 1479–80, and that for Brownswood in 1487. In 1480 he became archdeacon of Essex. He had resigned Burstead and his fellowship in 1472, when he was appointed by Ann, duchess of Exeter, Edward IV's sister, to the chapelry of Foulness, and by the prior and convent of the Cluniac monastery of that place to the vicarage of Prittlewell; he resigned the vicarage in 1473, and the chapelry in 1481–2. In 1479 he was presented by the prior and convent of St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, to the vicarage of St. Sepulchre's, Snow Hill, but resigned it after a few months' tenure. In 1484–5, the living of Saffron Walden having fallen to Bishop Kemp by lapse, Jane received that benefice. In 1494–5 he obtained a seat in the privy council, and in 1497 he was appointed canon of Windsor and dean of the Chapel Royal. Two years later Jane became bishop of Norwich, and was consecrated by Archbishop Morton on 20 Oct. 1499. He died in September 1500. He is stated to have paid the pope the enormous sum of 7,300 golden florins in fees on his appointment. The only public event assigned to his short episcopate was the burning of one Babram for heresy, but the date is not absolutely certain (Foxe, i. 829). He was a benefactor to New College, and contributed to the building of St. Mary's Church, Oxford.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 681, 745; Kirby's Winchester Scholars, p. 66; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 72, ii. 118, 273, 474, 626; Lansdowne MS. 9784.]