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Thomas Wood (1607–1692) was an English churchman, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry from 1671 to 1692. ==Life== Thomas was the third son of Thomas Wood (1565–1649) and Susanna Cranmer (1570–1650). He was baptised on 22 July 1607 in the church of St. John’s in then fashionable Hackney, where his grandfather Henry had bought land and built a country house at Clapton on the edge of Hackney Downs, . Edmond Chester Waters writes in 1877: He was educated at Westminster School amongst the King’s Scholars, and was elected in 1627 to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. on 27 April 1631, and M.A. on 24 April 1634. He had in the meantime taken Holy Orders, and was, by the influence of his family at Court, appointed at the age of 28 a chaplain in ordinary to the King, who presented him in the same year, on 2 July 1635, to the Rectory of Whickham in the county of Durham. He proceeded B.D. on 15 May 1641, and was created D.D. by dispensation on 13 March in the next year. About the same time he obtained from Charles I. a royal mandate to the Bishop of Durham to present him on the next vacancy to a prebendal stall in his cathedral, but before this appointment was completed, his course of preferment was interrupted by the Civil War, and he was ejected from his living by the Parliament. He employed this period of compulsory leisure in travelling abroad, and spent some years in Italy. He made a long stay at Rome, where he was confirmed in that strong dislike of Popery and High Church observance which distinguished him through life. After his return to England he lived in retirement on his patrimony at Hackney until the Restoration, when he was restored to the Rectory of Whickham by the House of Commons. At the same time he was reinstated as one of the chaplains in ordinary at Court, and on 15 June 1660 he made petition to the King to give effect to the mandate of Charles I. by bestowing upon him the Prebend at Durham, which had been vacant since the death of the Bishop of Exeter on 7 December 1659. His suit was supported by the powerful influence of his brother Sir Henry Wood, and he was presented on 7 July 1660 to the 11th stall in Durham Cathedral. He was duly installed on 10 December. following, and held this preferment ''in commendam'' until his death. In February 1663-4 he was promoted to the Deanery of Lichfield, when Dr. Paul was made Bishop of Oxford. The Dean married, about Michaelmas 1666, Grace Clavering, the youngest sister of Sir James Clavering Bart. of Axwell Park, who was his parishioner at Whickham. The disagreements arising from their disparity of 29 years were maliciously dwelt upon by his brother Canons. The Tanner Mss. in the Bodleian contain a mass of correspondence relating to Dr. Wood, and it is difficult to decide whether he was more detested at Lichfield or Durham. His puritanical principles made him hateful to the Bishops of both dioceses, who were High Churchmen, and were zealously engaged in restoring the fabric and ornaments of their cathedrals, whilst his personal meanness and avarice were a bye-word with his brother Prebendaries. And there is no doubt that the Dean was a constant invalid, although he lived to a great age. It is not surprising that the Dean’s wife was of one mind with her husband in his puritanical opinions and his partiality to the Nonconformists, for all her family associations were connected with the extreme Protestant party at Newcastle upon Tyne. He was now living in open warfare with the residing Canons of Lichfield, who served him on 19 February 1667-8 with formal articles of complaint. The success with which the Dean set at defiance all complaints of his conduct, and his brother’s position at Court, caused then a general expectation at Durham and Lichfield that he would be promoted to the next vacant bishopric. And that was realised in the following year, for when Sir Henry Wood concluded with Lord Treasurer Clifford the treaty for the marriage of his only surviving child Mary to the King’s eldest son by the Duchess of Cleveland, it was part of the bargain that the vacant bishopric of Lichfield should be given to his brother. Accordingly the Dean was elected Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry on 9 June 1671, and was consecrated at Lambeth on 2 July by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time and place, Dr. Nathaniel Crew (afterwards Lord Crew and Bishop of Durham) was consecrated Bishop of Oxford. He was a prelate of the same type as Bishop Wood, and resembled him in many circumstances of his career. They were both cadets of influential families, and owed their advancement to family interest at Court without any pretension to professional merit. Both eventually succeeded to great estates of inheritance, and died without issue. Each of these Bishops was regarded by the Clergy of his time as a scandal to his order and the Church, but is remembered for munificence and for charitable foundations which are still in existence. Bishop Wood was a great benefactor to Christ Church, Oxford, for he contributed liberally in his lifetime to the rebuilding of the large quadrangle and by his Will he left in trust for students lands of above 200 ''l.'' a year, and 3000 ''l.'' in money. His arms are graven on the gateway at Christ Church, and his portrait by Lely hangs in the College Hall. He also built two hospitals for the aged poor, one at Clapton, and the other at Ufford. And his Will contained charitable bequests to the poor of Durham, Chester, Whickham, and Hackney. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Wood (bishop of Lichfield and Coventry)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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