{{Short description|British bishop}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}} {{Use British English|date=July 2017}} {{Infobox Christian leader | honorific-prefix = The Right Reverend | name = Nicholas Stratford | image = Bp Nicholas Stratford.jpg | caption = | title = Bishop of Chester | diocese = Chester | term = 1689–1707 (death) | predecessor = Thomas Cartwright | successor = Sir William Dawes | other_post = Dean of St Asaph (1674–1689) | birth_date = baptized {{birth date|1633|09|08|df=y}} | birth_place = Hemel Hempstead | death_date = {{death date and age|1707|02|12|1633|09|08|df=y}} | death_place = Westminster | buried = Chester Cathedral | nationality = British | religion = Anglican | residence = | parents = | spouse = | children = | profession = | education = | alma_mater = Trinity College, Oxford }} thumb|Arms: Gules a fess humetty Or between three tressels Argent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cheshire-heraldry.org.uk/bishops/ |publisher=Cheshire Heraldry Society |accessdate=9 February 2021 |title=The Armorial Bearings of the Bishops of Chester}}</ref>
'''Nicholas Stratford''' (1633 – 12 February 1707) was an Anglican prelate. He served as Bishop of Chester from 1689 to 1707.
He was born at Hemel Hempstead,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43272|title=Parishes: Hemel Hempstead | British History Online}}</ref> graduated M.A. at Trinity College, Oxford in 1656, and was Fellow there in 1657.<ref>''Concise Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> He contributed to the royalist poetry anthology ''Britannia Rediviva'' in 1660, writing in Latin.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ett.arts.uwo.ca/poemindx/site/miscfrstlns/miscllnyfrst_O863.html |title=Poems Printed in Britannia Rediviva 1660. Indices to Seventeenth-Century Poetry |access-date=17 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706212244/http://ett.arts.uwo.ca/poemindx/site/miscfrstlns/miscllnyfrst_O863.html |archive-date=6 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He became Dean of St Asaph in 1673.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/asaph/cathedral/history/ |title=Esgobaeth Llanelwy | Diocese of St Asaph |access-date=17 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607045201/http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/asaph/cathedral/history/ |archive-date=7 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
He was one of the founders of the Blue Coat School in Chester.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=57335|title=Leisure and culture: Education | British History Online}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/LL/CHCT0041.htm |title=Chester, CHCT0041, Bluecoat Boy |access-date=17 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521050522/http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/LL/CHCT0041.htm |archive-date=21 May 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It closed in 1949,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.eurotravelling.net/england/chester/chester_culture.htm |title=Travel in Chester - England - United Kingdom - Europe - Culture - WorldTravelGate.net® |access-date=17 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604235807/http://www.eurotravelling.net/england/chester/chester_culture.htm |archive-date=4 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and its premises, The Bluecoat building, is now a charity hub owned by The Chester Bluecoat Charity. He promoted good relations with the Chester nonconformist Matthew Henry, and supported the Society for the Reformation of Manners.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=19200|title=Early modern Chester 1550-1762: Religion, 1662-1762 | British History Online}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/seminari/sanna_church.html |title=Cromohs Seminari - Sanna - the Eighteenth Century Church of England in Historical Writing |access-date=17 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521095550/http://www.cromohs.unifi.it/seminari/sanna_church.html |archive-date=21 May 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==See also== *List of bishops of Chester
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
{{S-start}} {{S-rel|en}} {{S-bef|before=Humphrey Lloyd}} {{S-ttl|title=Dean of St Asaph|years=1674–1689}} {{S-aft|after=George Bright}} {{S-bef|before=Thomas Cartwright}} {{S-ttl|title=Bishop of Chester|years=1689–1707}} {{S-aft|after=Sir William Dawes}} {{S-end}}
{{Deans of St Asaph}} {{Bishops of Chester}} {{Portal bar|Christianity|Biography}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stratford, William}} Category:1633 births Category:1707 deaths Category:Bishops of Chester Category:17th-century Church of England bishops Category:18th-century Church of England bishops Category:People associated with the University of Chester Category:Deans of St Asaph
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