he held till his death. He reverted to the Roman faith on the accession of Queen Mary, at which time (31 Aug. 1553) he had license because of his great age to be absent from the queen's coronation and from future parliaments (Haynes, Burghley Papers, p. 177); he was, however, at the trial of Bishop Hooper at Southwark in January 1555. He died on 6 Oct. 1557, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral on the south side of the choir. Capon was a preacher of some note and a man of learning. Henry VIII wrote to Benet, his ambassador at Rome, on 10 July 1531, to urge the pope to refer judgment of the divorce case to the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the abbot of Westminster and ‘the abbot of Hyde, a great clerk’ (Cal. of Hen. VIII, v. 327). Convocation in 1542, directing certain bishops to revise a translation of the New Testament, assigned the Epistles to the Corinthians to Capon, and the same convocation appointed him and the Bishop of Ely examiners of church books. Protestant writers inveigh against him as a time-server and a papist—‘a false dissembling bishop,’ as he is called by Foxe (v. 484), who frequently names him as a ‘persecutor’ of martyrs under Henry VIII and Mary. Fuller and Strype say he despoiled his bishopric to enrich himself. His will, dated 18 July 1557, directs that all his goods be divided among his servants, and as his executors ‘renounced,’ the prerogative court of Canterbury appointed an administrator on 29 Oct. 1557. Arms: ‘S, a chevron between 3 mullets O,’ or perhaps ‘A, on a chevron S between 3 trefoils of the second, 3 escallops of the field.’
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 171, 550; Annals of Cambridge, i. 338–9; Cal. of Henry VIII; Stevens's Suppl. to Dugdale, i. 503; Dodsworth's Salisb. Cath. p. 57; Fuller's Church Hist.; Foxe's Acts and Mon.; Dodd's Church Hist. p. 489; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 247, ii. 741, 767, 779, 809; Strype; Leland's Collect. vi. 220, 234; Lemon's Calendar; Richardson's Godwin; Milner's Winchester, ii. 223; Le Neve's Fasti; State Papers Henry VIII; Browne Willis's Not. Parl. i. 128; Burnet's Hist. of Reformation; Anderson's Annals of Engl. Bible, ii. 150; Haynes's Burghley Papers, p. 177; Britton's Salisb. Cath. 41, 95; Grey Friars' Chronicle, p.37; Wriothesley's Chronicle, i. 35, 103; Clive's Ludlow, 287; Bedford's Blazon of Episcopacy, 14.]
CAPON, WILLIAM (d. 1550), master of Jesus College, Cambridge, the brother of John Capon, alias Salcot [q. v.], was born at Salcot, Essex. He was educated at Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. 1499, M.A. 1502, and D.D. 1517, and was proctor in 1509. He was fellow of Catharine Hall, held the living of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, and on 21 July 1516 became master of Jesus College, Cambridge. He acted as chaplain to Wolsey, and was nominated in 1528 the first dean of Wolsey's short-lived college at Ipswich. A long letter from Capon to Wolsey, touching the organisation of the college, is printed in Ellis's ‘Original Letters’ (1st ser. i. 185, from ‘MS. Cotton,’ Titus B i. f. 175). In 1534 he resigned the vicarage of Barkway, Hertfordshire, which he had held for several years; in 1537 became prebendary of Wells; from 26 Sept. 1537 was for a few weeks archdeacon of Anglesey; in 1543 was instituted rector of Duxford St. Peter, Cambridgeshire, and prebendary of Bangor. He resigned the mastership of Jesus College in November 1546, and died in 1550.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 100; Wood's Fasti, ed. Bliss, i. 94 n. (where the date of Capon's resignation of Barkway is misprinted 1544); Ellis's Letters, 1st ser. i. 185, 3rd ser. ii. 231; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 115, 120, 204.]
CAPON, WILLIAM (1757–1827), scene-painter, decorative artist, and architect, the son of an artist, was born at Norwich 6 Oct. 1757. Under his father he commenced to paint portraits, but preferring architecture was placed under Novozielski, whom he assisted in the buildings and decorations of the Italian Opera House (reopened 1791) and Ranelagh Gardens. In 1794 he erected a theatre for Lord Aldborough at Belan House, Kildare, and in the same year was engaged by John Kemble as scene-painter for the new Drury Lane Theatre. An enthusiastic student of old English architecture, he greatly assisted Kemble in his efforts to represent plays with historical accuracy, and the scenes at Drury Lane (and at Covent Garden after 1802) in which he endeavoured to reconstruct ancient buildings were greatly celebrated. Among these were a view of the ancient palace of Westminster (fifteenth century), ‘wings’ representing English streets, the Tower of London (for the play of ‘Richard III’), the council chamber at Crosby House (for ‘Jane Shore’), a state chamber temp. Edward III, a baronial hall temp. Edward IV, and a Tudor hall temp. Henry VII. His connection with Drury Lane (burnt 1809) resulted in a loss of 500l. He made drawings of the interiors of Drury Lane and Covent Garden, which were exhibited in 1800 and 1802. He was also employed for the Royal Circus and the theatre at Bath (1805). In 1804 he was appointed architectural draughtsman to the Duke of York. His leisure was employed in architectural research, and his
