William Smyth (or Smith) (c. 1460 – 2 January 1514) was Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield from 1493 to 1496 and then Bishop of Lincoln until his death. He held political offices, the most important being Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches. He became very wealthy and was a benefactor of a number of institutions. He was a co-founder of Brasenose College, Oxford and endowed a grammar school in the village of his birth in Lancashire.
On 1 October 1492 he became bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and was consecrated on 3 February 1493 by Archbishop Morton.[6] On 6 November 1496 he was translated to the diocese of Lincoln.[11]
Prince Arthur died in April 1502 and in August of that year Smyth became Lord President of the council, giving him full responsibility for the exercise of royal power in Wales. He continued to hold this post until at least 1512 or, possibly, until his death. By August 1502 he was no longer Chancellor of Oxford University.[6]
Philanthropy
In November 1495 Smyth refounded the hospital of St John the Baptist in Lichfield and added to it a school for poor children.[6] In 1500 he founded the Cuerdley Chapel which was added to the south aisle of St Luke's Church, Farnworth for the use of his tenants from Cuerdley.[8] The nearby village of Cuerdley was the seat of the very ancient Smith family of Cuerdley his armorial progenitors[13] from which the renowned Captain John Smith also claimed his lineage.[14] He purchased land including a footpath from the village to the church to allow entry for his tenants by a separate door to avoid contact with the residents of Farnworth at the time of the plague.[15] In 1507 he made an endowment of £350 to found a grammar school in Farnworth, the village of his birth.[16]
Also in 1507 Smyth founded a fellowship in Oriel College, Oxford, and gave manors to Lincoln College. Around the same time he and Sir Richard Sutton set out to found a new college in Oxford. They rebuilt Brasenose Hall, added other existing halls to it, and having obtained a charter in 1512, called it "The King's haule and college of Brasennose".[9] This is now Brasenose College. Smyth's intention at the college was to benefit clergy from the north of England. The twelve fellows of the college were to have been born in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, or to have come from Lancashire, and particularly from the area of his birthplace. He gave to the college his lands of Cold Norton and, by his will, a considerable legacy of lands, plate, vestments, manuscripts and books.[6]
Reputation and legacy
Smyth's ecclesiastical, legal and political duties resulted in his having a very busy life, only at times being resident in his diocese. He was very wealthy and was described by Hugh Latimer as being one of the "unpreaching prelates"; no sermons by him survive.[6] He indulged in nepotism. Matthew Smyth was the first principal of Brasenose College,[9] a William Smyth was archdeacon of Northampton and then of Lincoln and another William Smyth was appointed to St John's Hospital at Lichfield.[6]
William Smyth died on 2 January 1514[11] at Buckden Palace, now in Cambridgeshire, one of the residences of the bishops of Lincoln. In addition to bequests to Brasenose College and Lincoln Cathedral, he made provision for a hospital at Banbury. He is buried in Lincoln Cathedral.[6]
^Reade, Compton (1904). The Smith family : being a popular account of most branches of the name--however spelt-- from the fourteenth century downwards, with numerous pedigrees now published for the first time. pp. 36, 98 and 143.
^Churton, Ralph (1800),The lives of William Smyth, Bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton. p. 5
Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-56350-X.
Poole, Charles (1906). Old Widnes and its Neighbourhood. Widnes: Exors. of T.S. Swale.
