Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stafford, Edmund de
STAFFORD, EDMUND de (1344–1419), bishop of Exeter, born in 1344, was second son of Sir Richard de Stafford, who was summoned to parliament as Baron Stafford of Clifton in 1371, and Isabel, his first wife, daughter of Sir Richard de Vernon of Haddon. Ralph de Stafford, first earl of Stafford [q. v.], was his great-uncle. Entering holy orders, Edmund's advancement, owing to family influence, was rapid. In 1369 he was collated to the prebend of Ulveton or Ulfton at Lichfield, and in 1377 to that of Weeford in the same cathedral (Le Neve, i. 633, 635). He held also the prebends of Welton Paynshall in Lincoln and Knaresborough in York, and was appointed dean of York in 1385. Before 1389 he was made keeper of the privy seal (Acts P. C. i. 14d; Rot. Parl. iii. 264), and on 15 Jan. 1394–5 was provided by Boniface to the see of Exeter. He was consecrated at Lambeth by Archbishop Courtenay on 20 June. Some time elapsed before he visited his diocese, affairs of state detaining him in London. On 23 Oct. 1396 he was appointed lord chancellor. He held the office until the abdication of Richard II in 1399. Meanwhile the administration of his diocese was committed to Dean Ralph de Tregrisiou. In the parliament of January 1396–7 he sat as chancellor, and swore to observe the arbitrary statutes then passed (ib. pp. 337, 347, 355). But although he lost the chancellorship at Henry IV's accession, he remained a member of the privy council (Acts, i. 100), attended Henry's first parliament, and was one of the prelates who assented to the imprisonment of the deposed king. He was also one of the witnesses to Richard II's will (Rymer, viii. 77). Early in 1400 he began his episcopal work in earnest, devoting nearly a year to the visitation of every part of Devonshire and Cornwall. But having appointed Robert Rygge [q. v.] chancellor of the cathedral, his vicar-general at the end of September, he returned to London in January, again to become lord chancellor, holding the office till February 1402–3. He was trier of petitions in several succeeding parliaments, and was also one of the king's council (Rot. Parl. iii. 427, 545, 567, 572). On 11 May 1402 he was named first in a commission to examine into the propagation of malicious rumours against the king (Rymer, viii. 255). But, except on very rare occasions, he did not thenceforth leave his diocese, labouring with zeal and diligence till five years before his death. His health failing, he retired to his manor of Bishop's-Clyst, committing the general work of the diocese to suffragans.
Himself a learned man, he was a great patron of learning, and took such interest in the hall which his predecessor, Bishop Stapeldon, had founded in Oxford, that he was regarded as its second founder; at any rate, he was its generous benefactor, and its name was changed from Stapeldon Hall to Exeter College in his day. The college registers show that, besides valuable gifts of books, he made extensive additions to the buildings at a cost of more than two hundred marks. He died at Clyst on 3 Sept. 1419, at the age of seventy-five, and was buried in his cathedral on the north side of the lady-chapel.
[Foss's Lives of the Judges; Campbell's Lord Chancellors; Wylie's Hist. of England under Henry IV, passim; Annales de Trokelowe et Blaneforde (Rolls Ser.); Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas, vol. i. passim; Rot. Parliamentorum; Rymer's Fœdera; Le Neve's Fasti, ed. Hardy; Godwin, De Præsulibus, ed. Richardson; Oliver's Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, pp. 94–97; Register of Bishop Stafford, ed. Hinges- ton-Randolph, pp. xii–xiv; Boase's History of Exeter College, p. liv; Stubbs's Const. Hist. ii. 506, iii. 33, 38.]