DEANS. 347 London in all things as it had been before its sepa- ration, and not long afterwards the church of St. Peter, Westminster, was by private act of parliament united to the bishopric of London and erected into a corpo- ration and body politic to consist of one dean and twelve prebendaries, by the name of the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of St. Peter, West- minster. DEANS. AViLLiAM Boston or Bevem, ahhot of Westminster^ was appointed the first dean 17th Dec. 1540 -^^ He died in Sept. 1549. His will, dated loth Sept. 1549, was proved on the 13th of the same month. Rtchakd Cox, S.T.P., was installed dean of this church 22nd Oct. 1549, but deprived in J 553 ^^5 and Hugh Weston, rector of Lincoln college and Margaret professor of Divinity in the university of Oxford^ was installed 18th Sept. 1533 : he resigned this deanery in 1556 and became dean of Windsor, and the church of Westminster was restored to its monastic character by virtue of a license from Reginald Pole, archbishop of Canterbury, and the Pope's legate in England, bearing date Croydon xvii Cal. Oct. (15th Sept.) 1556, and John Feckenham, dean of St. Paul's, was appointed abbot and installed 2i8t Nov. following. On the death of queen Mary queen Elizabeth received from her first parliament all the religious houses which had been created or restored by her sister, and 21 at June 1560 converted the abbey of Westminster into a collegiate church, placing therein a dean and twelve secular ca- nons or prebendaries, &c. ■^; and 21st June following the archbishop of Canterbury and other connnissionors were commanded to give the dean and prebendaries possession ; consequently
- Pat. 32 Hen.VIII. j). 7. •'" lit- became biHhop of Ely
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