CURWEN, HUGH (d. 1568), English ecclesiastic and statesman, was a native of Westmorland, and was educated at Cambridge, afterwards taking orders in the church. In May 1533 he expressed approval of Henry VIII.’s marriage with Anne Boleyn in a sermon preached before the king. In 1541 he became dean of Hereford, and in 1555 Queen Mary nominated him to the archbishopric of Dublin, and in the same year he was appointed lord chancellor of Ireland. He acted as one of the lords justices during the absence from Ireland of the lord deputy, the earl of Sussex, in 1557. On the accession of Elizabeth, Curwen at once accommodated himself to the new conditions by declaring himself a Protestant, and was continued in the office of lord chancellor. He was accused by the archbishop of Armagh of serious moral delinquency, and his recall was demanded both by the primate and the bishop of Meath. In 1567 Curwen resigned the see of Dublin and the office of lord chancellor, and was appointed bishop of Oxford. He died on the 1st of November 1568.
See John Strype, Life and Acts of Archbishop Parker (3 vols., Oxford, 1824), and Memorials of Thomas Cranmer (2 vols., Oxford, 1840); John D’Alton. Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin (Dublin, 1838).