{{About||the American javelin thrower|William Alley (javelin thrower)|the Irish Methodist|William Nassau Alley|the Australian cricketer|Bill Alley}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use British English|date=July 2017}} {{more sources|date=December 2021}} {{Short description|Anglican bishop of Dunwich}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | honorific-prefix = The Right Reverend | name = William Alley | honorific-suffix = | title = Bishop of Exeter | image = bishopwilliamalley.png | image_size = 200px | alt = | caption = | diocese = Diocese of Exeter | see = | elected = | term = 1560 - 1571 | predecessor = James Turberville | successor = William Bradbridge | other_post = | ordination = 1534 (deacon)<br />14 July 1560 (bishop) | ordained_by = John Longland as Deacon <!---------- Personal details ----------> | birth_name = William Thomas Alley or Alleyn II | birth_date = 1510 | birth_place = Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Kingdom of England | death_date = 15 April 1570 | death_place = Kingdom of England | buried = Exeter Cathedral | resting_place_coordinates = | nationality = | religion = Church of England | residence = | parents = William Alley | spouse = Sybil Bodleigh | children = 4, including Roger Alley | occupation = | profession = <!-- or | previous_post = --> | education = | alma_mater = Eton College, <br> King's College, Cambridge, <br> Trinity College, Cambridge }}
'''William Thomas Alley II''' (1510 – 15 April 1570) was an Anglican prelate, Bishop, and author, who was the Bishop of Exeter during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Sir William Alley married Sybil (Bodleigh) Alley in 1534; the two had six children.<ref>Alley, Rosie: Cathedrals to Colonies:Descendants of Bishop William Alley of Exeter"</ref>
William Alley is known to the literary world by his ''Poor Man's Librarie'', printed in folio by John Day, London, 1565, or ''Lectures upon the First Epistle of Saint Peter, red publiquely in the Cathedrall Church of Saint Paule, within the Citye of London, in 1560. Here are adioyned at the ende of euery special treatise, certain fruitful annotacions called miscellanea, because they do entreate of diverse and sundry matters.''
== Life == thumb|right|Engraving of Old St Paul's, where Alley served as a prebendary. William Alley was a native of Wycombe, Bucks, being the son of a former Mayor of Wycombe, William Alley. He was educated at Eton College and finished his studies at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. While a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral, London, he was fixed on by Queen Elizabeth to succeed the deprived James Turberville. On 27 April 1560, she issued her ''congé d'élire'' to the Dean and Chapter. It was delivered to the president, Chancellor Levison, on 5 May. In the absence of the newly elected dean, Gregory Dodds, the election took place on 20 May and his consecration to the episcopate was held on 14 July that year.<ref>Matthew Parker's ''Register'' fol. 80.</ref>
[[File:Exeter Cathedral (West End) 300px.jpg|left|thumb|Exeter Cathedral, Alley's burial place]]
The revenues of the see and of his chapter had of late been lamentably reduced. But the rectory of Honiton was given to the bishop towards the better maintenance of his rank; and in its parochial church, and even in the rectory-house, he held several ordinations "in Rectoria - in domo Domini Episcopi apud Honyton", as we learn from his registers. Owing to the impoverished state of the finances of his dean and chapter, with the unanimous consent of its members, and under the royal authority, he diminished the number of the canons of the cathedral from twenty-four to nine. His statute for this purpose is dated 22 February 1561. Attempts were made at subsequent periods to set aside this ordinance, which conferred the power and emoluments on the favoured nine, to the exclusion of the other fifteen. It proved useless, however, to combat a practice which had been legalised by time and authority.
After governing the diocese for about nine and a half years, he died, according to his epitaph, on 15 April 1570, aged 60, and was buried in the choir of his cathedral.
== References == {{reflist}}
===Attribution=== This article contains text from George Oliver, ''Lives of the Bishops of Exeter'', Broadgate, England: William Roberts, 1861, a work in the public domain.
==External links== {{DNB Poster|Alley, William|William Alley}}
{{cite web | title=William ALLEY (Bishop of Exeter) | website=Tudor Place | url=http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/WilliamAlley.htm}}
{{cite book | last=Stubbs | first=W. | title=Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum: An Attempt to Exhibit the Course of Episcopal Succession in England from the Records and Chronicles of the Church | publisher=Clarendon Press | year=1897 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYlbAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA106 | page=106}}
{{cite book | last=Ollard | first=S.L. | last2=Crosse | first2=G. | title=A Dictionary of English Church History | publisher=A.R. Mowbray | year=1919 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uI4xAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA219 | page=219}} {{start box}} {{s-rel|en}} {{succession box | title = Bishop of Exeter | years = 1560–1571 | before = James Turberville | after = William Bradbridge }} {{end box}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Alley, William}} Category:1510 births Category:1570 deaths Category:Bishops of Exeter Category:Diocese of Exeter Category:English Anglicans Category:16th-century English writers Category:16th-century English male writers Category:16th-century Church of England bishops Category:People from High Wycombe Category:People educated at Eton College