John Frewen

The Frewens were of sturdy Puritan stock, and John Frewen, who was rector here 45 years, and much reviled for his opinions, named two of his sons in accordance with Puritan convention. One he christened Accepted, the other Thankful.

Accepted was born here in 1588, had a distinguished career at Oxford, and in 1622 accompanied Lord Digby, the English ambassador, to Spain. He was in Madrid when Prince Charles arrived to woo the infanta. Seeing that attempts to convert Charles to Roman Catholicism were on foot, young Frewen seized an opportunity to preach a sermon strongly urging him to remain constant to the Protestant faith.

Charles remembered this when he came to the throne, and on the roll of royal chaplains being handed to him he

"called for Frewen by name and put him into the list with his own hand."

Frewen left here a Puritan, but at Oxford his views changed.

Laud became his chief friend and patron, and when the Civil War broke out Frewen was president of Magdalen College, and not only sent off the University plate to Charles at York, but lent him £500.

Charles rewarded him with the bishopric of Lichfield, but Parliament was anxious to have Frewen in its keeping, and offered £1000 for his capture. The hunted man flew to France, returning at the Restoration to be forthwith appointed Archbishop of York, with benefit from the revenues of Lichfield, from which he had not drawn a penny during his 17 years as bishop.

Something of an eccentric, Frewen would never permit a woman in his house. His system prospered, for in spite of all his hardships, at his death, in 1664, he left a fortune.

 

 

 

 

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