John
Bulcombe, Bishop of Lismore and Waterford, 1475-1483
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
The early background of
John Bulcombe is so far covered in mystery. It is possible that he took his
surname from a place called North Bulcombe. This place is in Devon near the
border with Somerset. In September 1464 there is reference to John Bikcomb,
clerk as born in Tybrescomb but this was
possibly a different person.[1] Various
ways of spelling John Bulcombe’s surname include Bulcom; Bulcomb; Bulkombe and
Bulkumb.[2] In
all these examples the letter u is used in all cases.
It is possible that
John Bulcombe or his family were not natives of Devon or Somerset. A deed from
Suffolk was made in 1356 and one of the witnesses was Michael de Bulcombe.[3] A brother or cousin
called Thomas Bulcombe acted as John’s proctor in 1469 but we know nothing else
of this person.[4]
John Bulcombe at Oxford
John Bulcombe first appears in the
surviving records as principal of Beam Hall in Oxford in 1466. But Bulcombe was
already in Oxford for a few years before this as he had acquired a M.A. degree
by 1466. The same source also says that he came from the diocese of Bath and
Wells.[5]
This diocese covered the county of Somerset along with the modern county of
Avon in which is situated the city of Bristol.
Bulcombe was first
admitted as principal of Beam Hall on October 11, 1466 but he resigned one
month later on November 10, 1466. He was readmitted as principal on Christmas
Eve 1466. After these revolving door movements Bulcombe remained as principal
until at least September 1469.[6]
The academic Halls and Inns of Oxford were rented by their successive
principals on a year-to-year basis. It was in these buildings that the greater
number of medieval students resided.[7]
Beam Hall was situated
in the parish of St. John, opposite Merton College.[8] At
the time that Bulcombe was principal the medieval hall system was at its height
with more than sixty halls but by 1500 there was no more than ten. The
admission of undergraduates to the various colleges was one of the chief
reasons for the rapid decline.[9]
The clerical career of
John Bulcombe was one of constant movement from one benefice to another and
across diocesan boundaries. This was not because he was an unhappy fellow or a
trouble maker. The evidence suggests that constant movement was a
characteristic of the clerical career of those holding a degree.[10]
John Bulcombe was ordained a priest on April 21, 1470.[11]
John Bulcombe in parish positions
Yet he was involved in
parish life for a year before this date. Well, sort of involved. On March 31,
1469 Sir John Bulcombe, clerk, was instituted to the rectory of Hawkridge in
the diocese of Bath and Wells following the death of the encumber Sir John
Brawse. But Bulcombe did not attend the ceremony. Instead he sent his proctor,
Thomas Bulcombe to act on his behalf. The advowson of Hawkridge was held by
William Doddesham, esquire and it was he who presented Bulcombe to the benefice.[12]
The process of how a
cleric was first introduced to a patron of a benefice is elusive. The first we
usually hear about a presentation is in a bishop’s register where a cleric is
recommended by a patron to a bishop for institution. At the same time we hear
little about how many unsuccessful clerics competed for that benefice.[13]
William Doddesham had the advowson to a number of parishes by the right of his
wife and this was shared with his wife’s two married sisters.[14]
We have no subsequent
account to say if John Bulcombe attended the parish except that he had resigned
the position by April 1473 when Master John Shirwood became rector.[15]
This latter cleric held the position until March 1489 when he resigned. The new
encumber, Sir John Hamlyne was presented for institution by an Irish connection
in the person of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ormond.[16]
On November 14, 1472 John
Bulcombe was made vicar of Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire. His impact upon the
parish, even if he ever visited the place, cannot have been great as he vacated
the position in February 1473.[17]
On February 16, 1373 John Bulcombe was admitted as vicar of Chieveley in
Berkshire. His occupancy here lasted for over a year before he vacated the
parish by May 1474. Before this happened Bulcombe was admitted as rector of
Milton in Berkshire on February 20, 1474[18]
Sometime before June
15, 1474 John Bulcombe resigned the rectory of Otterhampton in Somerset as Sir
Richard Sautt was instituted on that day. The presentation was made by Reynold
Stourton, knight in right of his wife, Margaret, daughter and heiress of John
Coker.[19]
There is no record to say when Bulcombe was instituted to Otterhampton. In 1497
an inquisition was held into who owned the advowson of Otterhampton. It found
that William Hody was the owner by inheritance from Alexander Hody who
purchased from Walter Trevett. Alexander held the advowson with his wife Dame
Margaret Stourton and that after his death Margaret held same with her new
husband, Reynold Stourton. It was this latter person who presented Master John
Bulcombe and the above Sir Richard Sautt to the rectory.[20]
John Bulcombe in the Diocese of Bath and Wells
On March 2, 1475 John
Bulcombe was presented to the rectory of Bawdrip in Somerset by John Wroughton,
esquire. The vacancy occurred due to the death of the encumber Sir John Nown.[21]
The parish appears to have been neglected for many decades. As far back as the
mid-15th century the then rector was ordered to repair his
buildings.[22]
At about the same time
that Bulcombe arrived in Bawdrip he acquired some property there. The size of
this property and from who did he buy it from is as yet unknown. What we do
know is that he sold a messuage and five acres to Thomas Fisher for £10 3s 4d
before June 1475 as the documents relating to the sale say that it was Master
Bulcombe who sold the property and that after the sale he was Bishop Bulcombe.
Fisher paid the money but Bulcombe would not transfer the property. To find
redress, Fisher pursued the case in the common courts but found no success.
Therefore, at some unknown date between 1475 and 1480 Fisher petitioned, Thomas
Rotherham, bishop of Lincoln and chancellor of England, to get Bulcombe to
appear in the chancery court and transfer the property or restore the money
paid. An endorsement to the petition says that the case was to be heard at the
quinzaine of Michaelmas next following but no records survive to say how the
affair was settled.[23]
Inside Lismore cathedral
John Bulcombe as Bishop of Lismore and Waterford
Before June 1475 John
Bulcombe received provision from the Pope to become bishop of the untied
diocese of Lismore and Waterford.[24]
A key person for
Bulcombe in his new diocese was Edmund Mandeville, precentor of Lismore. This
cleric was “skilled in canon law” and had for a long time served Robert, late
bishop of Lismore and Waterford as the official-general. Mandeville was also a
papal chaplain but more importantly he was approved by both chapters in the
diocese. The chapter in Waterford recommended to the Pope that Edmund should be
precentor of Lismore and the chapter of Lismore elected him. After his election
Mandeville went to the Rome and stayed there at great expense, securing his
position and conducting business of the diocese. For this, in June 1475, the
Pope granted Mandeville a yearly pension for life of £12 sterling on the
episcopal mensa of the diocese. John Bulcombe, still only bishop elect, was instructed
to pay this pension even after his consecration and by his successors.[25]
John Bulcombe was not
long in the bishop’s chair before he was called to settle a dispute between
claimants for the position of prior of St. Catherine’s priory near Waterford. When
the position of prior became vacant about 1475 William Winchiton petitioned the
Pope for the job and was granted same. But William failed to mention that
Patrick Cantwell, an Augustinian canon held non-peaceful possession of the
priory. At William’s arrival Cantwell petitioned the Pope to keep the position.
Pope Sixtus sent the dispute to John, bishop of Calahorrha to decide the matter
and he found for William. Following this the official of Waterford accepted
William as canon of the priory and acknowledged him as prior.
But William was
consistently attacked by John Cantwell over the succeeding few months. In 1476
both claimants brought their case to Bishop Bulcombe and two others for
arbitration. Bishop Bulcombe declared that William was the lawful prior and
that Cantwell should resign any rights. Following this William held the priory
in peaceful possession for five years until 1481 when Thomas Cor, a priest of
the Waterford diocese challenged him. Cor petitioned the Pope and got the job
after the treasurer of Waterford, David Sarghent, although finding that William
committed no crimes, removed him and installed Thomas Cor. Another petition
went to the Pope and it was left to the abbot of Mothel to settle the matter
and restore William if he found him as the rightful prior.[26]
In 1480 Nicholas
O’Hennessy, Cistercian abbot of Fermoy, claimed to have provision to the see of
Lismore and Waterford on the basis that the absentee John Bulcombe had
resigned.[27]
As late as 1492 Nicholas O’Hennessy was still claiming to be the bishop of
Lismore.[28]
Without an episcopal
register it is difficult to say what involvement John Bulcombe had in the
management of the joint diocese. He did not spend his full term of office in
Ireland. The Bawdrip land case referred to above said that Fisher believed that
Bulcombe was staying in England for some time and so should be sent a sub poena to appear at the chancery
court.[29]
In 1480/1 an event
occurred in the Waterford diocese that surely did not happen without Bulcombe’s
acknowledgement and possible encouragement. This event was the combined action
of a number of religious houses and the chapter of Christ Church to increase
the rent across their estates. The religious houses involved were the priory of
Friars Hospitallers, the priory of Bath (whose daughter houses was the priory
of St. John’s), the priory of St. Katherine, Dunbrody abbey, Tintern abbey and
the house of St. Stephen along with other minor houses. They sought bills of
resumption and acts of Parliament to order the cancel existing leases and so
renew the leases with an increase in the rent.
This action produced a
massive reaction by the local population in and around Waterford city. The
resistance campaign was led by the city mayor, James Rice. Instructions were
given that if anyone took these new leases on any house, mill, land or tenement
that they could only do so with the consent of the disposed tenant. If anyone
broke this instruction they were to pay a fine of £100 and the disposed tenant
could bring an action of debt against them in the city court. In these
circumstances the offender could lose his franchise if a freeman or be banned
forever from the city if he was a stranger. A city ordinance passed later in
that year confirmed the validity of the existing leases.[30]
This tenant resistance
movement reminds one of The Plan of Campaign in the 1880s where people who took
the land of disposed tenants were boycotted.
In January 1483 John
Bulcombe, while still bishop of Waterford, exchanged the rectory of Bawdrip in
Somerset for the vicarage of Highworth in Wiltshire with Master Michael Coly.
The institution of Coly to Bawdrip was much like Bulcombe’s first appointment
to a benefice as Coly was represented by his proctor, Sir John Carram,
chaplain.[31]
About a hundred years later Bawdrip begin its second association with the
diocese of Waterford and Lismore when John Atherton was made rector in 1585.[32]
He was the father of John Atherton who became bishop of Waterford and Lismore
in May 1636.[33]
John Bulcombe’s
association with Berkshire continued into the 1480s. In May 1484 he exchanged
the rectory of Longworth for that of Hinton Waldrist. Both of these parishes
were in Berkshire. There is no record yet found to say when Bulcombe was first admitted
to Longworth or when he ended his term in Hinton Waldrist.[34]
A.B. Emden suggested
that John Bulcombe died sometime around 1486.[35] There
is no suggestion that he left any illegitimate family but a number of Bulcombe
people begin to appear within the next twenty years. Around 1500 a second John
Bulcombe appears in the diocese of Bath and Wells. In March 1501 he was a
sub-deacon in the diocese.[36]
He had studied at Merton College, Oxford around 1500-1501.[37] Over
the next forty years he served in various clerical positions in a number of
English dioceses.[38]
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End of post
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[1]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte & M.C.B. Dawes (eds.), The register of Thomas Bekynton, bishop of Bath and Wells 1443-1465 (Somerset
Record Society, vol. xlix, 1934), part 1, no. 1606
[2]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500 (3 vols. Oxford, 1989), vol. 1, p.
301
[3]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle (Bristol and Gloucestershire
Archaeological Society, vol. 18, 2004), p. 938
[4]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The
Registers of Robert Stillington, bishop of Bath and Wells 1466-1491 and Richard
Fox, bishop of Bath and Wells 1492-1494 (Somerset Record Society, vol. LII,
1937), no. 129
[5]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500 (3 vols. Oxford, 1989), vol. 1, p.
301
[6]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, vol. 1, p. 301
[7]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, vol. 1, p. xxx
[8]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, vol. 2, p. 753
[9]
Rev. H.E. Salter (ed.), Medieval archives
of the University of Oxford (Oxford Historical Society, vol. lxx, 1920),
vol. 1, p. v
[10]
Tim Cooper, The last generations of
English catholic clergy: parish priests in the diocese of Coventry and
Lichfield in the early sixteenth century (Boydell & Brewer, 1999), p.
40?
[11]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, vol. 1, p. 301: Register Beauchamp,
Sarum, I, part ii, folio. 200
[12]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The Reg. of
Robert Stillington & Richard Fox, bishops of Bath & Wells, no. 129
[13]
Tim Cooper, The last generations of
English catholic clergy: parish priests in the diocese of Coventry and
Lichfield in the early sixteenth century (Boydell & Brewer, 1999), p.
40
[14]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The Reg. of
Robert Stillington & Richard Fox, bishops of Bath & Wells, no. 752
[15]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The Reg. of
Robert Stillington & Richard Fox, bishops of Bath & Wells, no. 250
[16]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The Reg. of
Robert Stillington & Richard Fox, bishops of Bath & Wells, no. 933
[17]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, vol. 1, p. 301: Register Rotherham,
Lincoln, xxi, folio 79v
[18]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, vol. 1, p. 301: Register Beauchamp,
I, part I, folios 171v, 177v, 178v
[19]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The Reg. of
Robert Stillington & Richard Fox, bishops of Bath & Wells, no. 303
[20]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The
Registers of Oliver King, bishop of Bath and Wells 1496-1503 and Hadrian de
Castello, bishop of Bath and Wells 1503-1518 (Somerset Record Society, vol.
liv, 1939), no. 41
[21]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The Reg. of
Robert Stillington & Richard Fox, bishops of Bath & Wells, no. 320
[22]
Victorian County History: Somerset, vol. 6, p. 189
[23]
Paul Dryburgh and Brendan Smith (eds.), Handbook
and Select Calendar of Sources for Medieval Ireland in the National Archives of
the United Kingdom (Dublin, 2005), p. 136
[24]
J.A. Twemlow (ed.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, volume XIII, 1471-1484 (London, 1955),
p. 40
[25]
J.A. Twemlow (ed.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, volume XIII (London,
1955), p. 40
[26]
J.A. Twemlow (ed.), Calendar of entries
in the Papal Registers, pp. 109-110
[27]
James F. Lydon, Terence B. Barry, Robin Frame and Katherine Simms (eds.), Colony and frontier in medieval Ireland:
essays presented to J.F. Lydon (1995), p. 147
[28] Michael
J. Haren (ed.), Calendar of entries in
the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, volume XV, 1484-1492 (Dublin, 1978),
no. 875
[29]
Paul Dryburgh & Brendan Smith (eds.), Calendar
of Sources for Medieval Ire. in the N.A. of the U.K., p. 136
[30]
Niall J. Byrne (ed.), The Great Parchment
Book of Waterford (Dublin, 2007), pp. xx-xxi, 96
[31]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The Reg. of
Robert Stillington & Richard Fox, bishops of Bath & Wells, no. 692
[32]
R.W. Dunning and C.R. Elrington (eds.), Victorian
County History: Somerset (1992), vol. 6, p. 191
[33]
Aidan Clarke, ‘The Atherton file’, in Decies,
no. 11 (1979), p. 45
[34]
Calendar of the Patent Rolls, 1476-1485, p. 441
[35]
A.B. Emden, A biographical register of
the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, vol. 1, p. 302
[36]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The Reg. of
Oliver King & Hadrian de Castello, bishops of Bath & Wells, no. 41
[37] A.B.
Emden, A biographical register of the
University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, vol. 1, p. 302
[38]
Sir H.C. Maxwell-Lyte (ed.), The
Registers of Thomas Wolsey, bishop of Bath and Wells 1518-1523, John Clerke,
bishop of Bath and Wells 1523-1541, William Knight, bishop of Bath and Wells
1541-1547 and Gilbert Bourne, bishop of Bath and Wells 1554-1559 (Somerset
Record Society, vol. lv, 1940), nos. 412, 553
