# John Woolton > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Woolton > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/John_Woolton.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woolton > Source revision: 1277332762 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}} {{Use British English|date=December 2017}} {{short description|Bishop of Exeter from 1579 to 1594}} '''John Woolton''' (or '''Wolton''') (1535? – 13 March 1594) served as [Bishop of Exeter](/source/Bishop_of_Exeter) in Devon, England, from 1579 to 1594. ==Origins== He was born at [Whalley, Lancashire](/source/Whalley%2C_Lancashire) in about 1535, the son of John Woolton of [Wigan](/source/Wigan), by his wife Isabella Nowell, a daughter of John Nowell of [Read Hall](/source/Read_Hall_and_Park) near Whalley, and sister of [Alexander Nowell](/source/Alexander_Nowell) ({{circa|1517}}{{snd}}13 February 1602), Protestant theologian and [Dean of St Paul's](/source/Dean_of_St_Paul's). ==Career== He was admitted as a student of [Brasenose College, Oxford](/source/Brasenose_College%2C_Oxford), on 26 October 1553, when aged about 18, and supplicated for the degree of B.A. on 26 April 1555. Soon afterwards he left for Germany with his uncle [Alexander Nowell](/source/Alexander_Nowell) and remained abroad until the accession of Queen [Elizabeth I](/source/Elizabeth_I_of_England) in 1558. On 25 April 1560 he was ordained a [deacon](/source/deacon) by [Edmund Grindal](/source/Edmund_Grindal), [Bishop of London](/source/Bishop_of_London), and he proceeded to priest on 4 June 1560. Woolton found patrons in [William Alley](/source/William_Alley), [Bishop of Exeter](/source/Bishop_of_Exeter), and [Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford](/source/Francis_Russell%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Bedford), [Lord Lieutenant of Devon](/source/Lord_Lieutenant_of_Devon) (1584-5). He was appointed to the rectory of [Sampford Peverell](/source/Sampford_Peverell) (16 August 1561), to the rectory of [Whimple](/source/Whimple), the vicarage of [Braunton](/source/Braunton) (4 May 1570), and to the rectory of [Kenn](/source/Kenn%2C_Devon) (15 October 1573), all in [Devon](/source/Devon). A canonry at [Exeter](/source/Exeter) was conferred on him in March 1565; he read a divinity lecture there twice a week and preached twice every Sunday, and during the plague in the city during the summer of 1570 he attended the sick. By the new charter, dated 28 July 1578, Woolton, probably through his uncle's influence, was constituted the first warden of the [collegiate church of Manchester](/source/collegiate_church_of_Manchester). On 11 October in that year Bridget, Countess of Bedford, recommended him to Lord Burghley as a fitting person to fill the vacant bishopric of Exeter. He was duly appointed to the see, supplicated for the degrees of B.D. and D.D. at Oxford on 26 May 1579, and was consecrated in the archiepiscopal chapel at [Croydon](/source/Croydon) on 2 August 1579. As the bishopric had become of small value, Woolton was allowed to hold with it the place of [archpriest](/source/archpriest) at [Haccombe](/source/Haccombe) in Devon (20 October 1581) and the rectory of [Lezant](/source/Lezant) in [Cornwall](/source/Cornwall) (1584). Woolton remodelled the statutes at [Exeter Cathedral](/source/Exeter_Cathedral). In 1581 he deprived Anthony Randal, parson of [Lydford](/source/Lydford), a follower of the [Family of Love](/source/Familia_Caritatis), and made others who had accepted the Family's doctrines recant in the cathedral. Many strong accusations, some amounting to fraudulent misgovernment, were made against his running of the diocese to the [archbishop of Canterbury](/source/archbishop_of_Canterbury) in 1585. His answers to the charges were satisfactory, though he was obliged to admit his comparative poverty, and that he had placed his son in jail. ==Land purchases== In 1593 he purchased from the Brett family the estates of Pilland, [Upcott](/source/Upcott%2C_Pilton), Beara and Cladovin all in the parish of [Pilton](/source/Pilton%2C_Devon) in North Devon. His son Dr John Woolton and his grandson, Anthony Woolton, lived at Pilland until about 1637.Reed, Margaret A., Pilton, its Past and its People, Barnstaple, 1985, p.32 ==Marriage and children== He married and had a large family, leaving progeny including: *John Woolton, M.A., eldest son, a fellow of [All Souls' College, Oxford](/source/All_Souls'_College%2C_Oxford), who erected a monument to his father's memory in [Exeter Cathedral](/source/Exeter_Cathedral).[http://www.churchmonumentssociety.org/Devon_2a.html See image] He retired from practice{{clarify|date=July 2017}} at Exeter to the estate of [Pilland](/source/Pilland) in the parish of [Pilton](/source/Pilton%2C_Devon), North Devon, which his father had purchased. *(daughter), who married [Francis Godwin](/source/Francis_Godwin),Dictionary of National Biography successively [Bishop of Llandaff](/source/Bishop_of_Llandaff) and [Bishop of Hereford](/source/Bishop_of_Hereford). *Alice Woolton, who married William Sharpe of [Tiverton](/source/Tiverton%2C_Devon) in Devon, 3rd son of Robert Sharpe, a merchant in the [City of London](/source/City_of_London), by his wife Jeliane Mallory, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir Richard Mallory, [Lord Mayor of London](/source/Lord_Mayor_of_London)[Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L.](/source/John_Lambrick_Vivian), (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the [Heralds' Visitations](/source/Heraldic_visitation) of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.679, pedigree of Sharpe in 1564. ==Death and burial== He died on 13 March 1594 at the [Bishop's Palace, Exeter](/source/Bishop's_Palace%2C_Exeter), and was buried on 20 March in Exeter Cathedral, on the south side of the choir, where survives his [chest tomb](/source/chest_tomb) with inscribed black marble slab on top.[http://www.churchmonumentssociety.org/Devon_2a.html See image] Another monument in his memory, erected by his eldest son, survives very high up on a wall of the north transept.[http://www.churchmonumentssociety.org/Devon_2a.html See image] ==Works== Woolton was author of the following theological treatises: * ''An Armour of Proofs'', 1576. * ''A Treatise of the Immortalitie of the Soule'', 1578. * ''The Christian Manuell'', 1576; reprinted by the [Parker Society](/source/Parker_Society), 1851. * ''The Castell of Christians and Fortresse of the Faithfull'', n.d. [1577]: the dedication is to [Francis Walsingham](/source/Francis_Walsingham). * ''A new Anatomie of the whole Man'', 1576. * ''Of the Conscience: a Discourse'', 1570. * ''David's Chain''. ==References== *{{DNB|wstitle=Woolton, John}} {{s-start}} {{s-rel|en}} {{succession box | before=[William Bradbridge](/source/William_Bradbridge)| title=[Bishop of Exeter](/source/Bishop_of_Exeter) | after=[Gervase Babington](/source/Gervase_Babington) | years=1579–1594}} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Woolton, John}} Category:1535 births Category:1594 deaths Category:Bishops of Exeter Category:People from Whalley, Lancashire Category:16th-century Church of England bishops Category:16th-century Anglican theologians --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John Woolton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woolton) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woolton?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.