Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Scambler, Edmund
SCAMBLER, EDMUND (1510?–1594), bishop of Peterborough and Norwich, was born at Gressingham, Lancashire, about 1510. He was educated at Peterhouse, Queens', and Jesus Colleges at Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1541–2. He no doubt took orders at once, as during the reign of Mary he is mentioned as one of the ministers of a secret protestant congregation in London, and is noted as having been in great danger (Strype, Memorials, III. ii. 132, 147, Parker, ii. 458). At the accession of Elizabeth he became vicar of Rye and chaplain to Parker (ib. and iii. 284). Promotion came rapidly. In 1560 he became successively prebendary of York and canon of Westminster. On 16 Feb. 1560–1 he was elected, through Cecil's influence, it is said, bishop of Peterborough, and he is reported to have made certain grants to Cecil out of the estates of the see. On 22 Feb. 1560–1 he preached before the queen ‘in his rochet and chimere.’ He acted in a similar capacity on several public occasions (Strype, Annals, I. i. 300, 369, 400, Parker, iii. 135). He subscribed the articles of 1562. In 1564 he was created D.D. at Cambridge, and in 1584 he was incorporated at Oxford. At Peterborough he seems to have been active (ib. i. 509). He took part in 1571 in the establishment of the exercises for the interpretation of scripture at Northampton (Strype, Grindal, p. 260). He is mentioned as writing to Burghley about the readjustment of a local tax in 1579 (Strype, Annals, II. ii. 269). He tried to get new statutes for the cathedral confirmed in 1582 (ib. III. i. 159). He was translated to Norwich, 15 Dec. 1584, and confirmed on 15 Jan. following. He grumbled in 1585 about certain acts of his predecessor, but, as Strype remarks, the same complaint might be made of his own wasteful conduct at Peterborough; Wharton indeed suggests that he ruined both sees (Strype, Cranmer, p. 1055). In 1588 he condemned Francis Kett [q. v.] for heresy. He died on 7 May 1594, and was buried in Norwich Cathedral, where there was a tomb to his memory, which was destroyed in the civil wars. Scambler was married, and in his will refers to sons—Thomas, Adam, James, and Edward—and two daughters. Adam Scambler, J.P., died in Norfolk on 18 Sept. 1641.
Besides ‘Articuli xxiii Religionis’ and an ‘Injunction’ (1569) Scambler published ‘E. Schambler, vicar of Pie … his Medicine proved for a Desperate Conscience,’ London, n.d. He prepared translations of St. Luke and St. John for ‘The Bishops' Bible.’
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 167, 547; Zurich Letters, i. 73, iii. 160 n., Parker's Corr. pp. 261, 3 n. 5 n., Rogers xi. (Rogers dedicated the first part of his work on the English Creed to him in 1585), all in Parker Society; Narr. of the Reformation (Camden Soc.), p. 58; Strype's Works, passim.]