Robert Sherborne

{{Short description|English bishop (died 1536)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = | honorific-prefix = | name = Robert Sherborne | honorific-suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | title = Bishop of St David's (1505–1508)<br />Bishop of Chichester (1508–1536) | image = Chichester Cathedral 05 brighter.JPG | image_size = | alt = | caption = Monument in Chichester Cathedral | diocese = Diocese of Chichester | see = | elected = | appointed = | predecessor = | successor =  | ordination = 5 March 1501 | ordained_by = | consecration = | consecrated_by =  | birth_date = {{circa}} 1453 | birth_place = Rolleston on Dove, Staffordshire, England | death_date = 1536 | death_place =  | coat_of_arms =  | other = }} '''Robert Sherborne'''<ref>Sherborn, Shirbirn, Sherburne, Sherburn, Sherbourne.</ref> (born {{circa}} 1453 <ref>Bishop Sherborne's own writings quoted in Francis W. Steer, ''Robert Sherburne Bishop of Chichester: Some Aspects of his Life Reconsidered'', Chichester Papers No. 16 (Chichester City Council, 1960), p.2</ref><ref>[http://www.rolleston-on-dove.freeserve.co.uk/stmarys.htm St Mary's Church, Rolleston-on-Dove] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824084134/http://www.rolleston-on-dove.freeserve.co.uk/stmarys.htm |date=2007-08-24 }}</ref> died 1536) was Bishop of St David's from 1505 to 1508 and Bishop of Chichester from 1508 to 1536.

Sherborne was born in Rolleston on Dove, Staffordshire, and educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford.<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp1322-1350 Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Scadden-Sheyne]</ref> He was Master of St. Cross Hospital, near Winchester and a Canon of Wells Cathedral until 1493.

Sherborne was Archdeacon of Huntingdon (1494–1496), Archdeacon of Buckingham and of Taunton (1496–1505)<ref name="odnb">{{cite encyclopedia |author=Christopher Harper-Bill |title=Sherborn, Robert (c.1454–1536) |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |orig-year=2004 |date=January 2011 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/25357 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25357 |access-date=5 June 2013 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> and Dean of St Paul's (1499–1505).<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=32379 Deans of St Paul's | British History Online]</ref> Exceptionally, he held ecclesiastical posts prior to ordination: he was made a deacon in 1499 and ordained a priest on 5 March 1501.<ref name="odnb" /> He acted as royal ambassador to the pope several times. From 1505 to 1508 he was bishop of St David's,<ref>[http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/bishops_of_st_davids.htm Bishops of St. Davids]</ref> a post he obtained by forging a papal bull. When the forgery was discovered, Henry VII wrote to the pope on his behalf. Sherborne does not seem to have been punished, and in 1508 was made bishop of Chichester, this time legitimately by a real papal bull.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Sherborne,_Robert | title=Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Sherborne, Robert - Wikisource, the free online library }}</ref>

Sherborne was a patron of the artist Lambert Barnard, commissioning several series of paintings from him.<ref>Croft-Murray, Edward, ‘Lambert Barnard: An English Early Renaissance Painter', Archaeological Journal, Vol. 113, (1957), pp. 108-125</ref><ref>Coke, Karen, Lambert Barnard, Chichester’s Tudor Painter (Chichester, Dean and Chapter of Chichester Cathedral, 2014)</ref> He founded the Free Grammar School in Rolleston, around 1520,<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=51243 Roehampton - Romsey | British History Online]</ref> which continued to 1909.<ref>[http://www.rolleston.org.uk/rollestonian/education.htm The Roots of Education]</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== * ''Concise Dictionary of National Biography'' * Steer, Francis W., ''Robert Sherburne Bishop of Chichester: Some Aspects of his Life Reconsidered'', Chichester Papers No. 16 (Chichester City Council, 1960)

{{St Paul's Cathedral}} {{Archdeacons of Buckingham}} {{Archdeacons of Taunton}} {{Archdeacons of Huntingdon and Wisbech}} {{Bishops of St David's}} {{Bishops of Chichester}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherborne, Robert}} Category:1450s births Category:1536 deaths Category:People from Hampshire (before 1974) Category:People educated at Winchester College Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford Category:Deans of St Paul's Category:Bishops of St Davids Category:Bishops of Chichester Category:Archdeacons of Buckingham Category:Archdeacons of Huntingdon and Wisbech Category:Archdeacons of Taunton Category:16th-century English Roman Catholic bishops