work entitled ‘A Treatise of Reformation in Religion, diuided into seuen Sermons preached in oxeford. … Hereunto are added two sermons touching the Supper of the Lorde’ (London, 4to), in which he justified the reformation of a religion in which God was not rightly served by the example of Christ casting the money-changers out of the Temple. In the same year he was included by the lords in council in a list of those divines whom they considered ‘fit and able persons’ to be employed in conferences with jesuits and other recusants (Strype, Annals, iii. i. 225, Life of Whitgift, 1822, i. 198). On 17 Nov. 1585 he was nominated bishop of Hereford, in succession to John Scory [q. v.], and was consecrated at Lambeth on 30 Jan. 1585–6 (Strype, Life of Whitgift, i. 466–7; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1589–90, p. 259). On 7 Oct. 1587 he sent a report, such as was demanded from most of the bishops, concerning the suitability of the justices of the peace in his diocese, and especially concerning their treatment of recusants (Strype, Annals, iii. i. 669, ii. 453–455). On 25 Dec. 1592 he made an oration before the queen in St. Mary's Church at Oxford. His exordium was tedious, and the queen ‘sent twice to him to cut it short, because she herself intended to make a public speech that evening.’ The bishop, however, refused to be compressed, and Elizabeth was obliged to defer her speech until the following day. Westfaling died on 1 March 1601–2, and was buried in the north transept of Hereford Cathedral. His will, dated 6 Aug. 1601, was proved on 10 April 1602. By it he bequeathed the manor of Batch in Herefordshire to Jesus College, Oxford. He married Anne (d. 1597), daughter of William Barlow (d. 1568) [q. v.], bishop of Chichester, and widow of Augustin Bradbridge or Brodbridge, prebendary of Salisbury. By her he had one son—Herbert—and three daughters: Anne, married to William Jeffries; Margaret, married to Richard Edes or Eedes [q. v.], dean of Worcester; and Elizabeth, married to Robert Walwyn of Newland in Worcestershire. William Walwyn [q. v.] was her son.
Westfaling was a man of great gravity of demeanour. Francis Godwin [q. v.] states that during a familiar acquaintance of many years he scarcely saw him laugh (De Præsulibus, 1743, p. 495). His portrait is in the picture-gallery of the Bodleian Library. Some laudatory verses by him were affixed to ‘Joannis Juelli Vita et Mors’ (London, 1573, 4to), by Laurence Humphrey or Humfrey [q. v.], and two short poems in his praise by William Gager are preserved in the library of the British Museum (Add. MS. 22583, ff. 71–2). Westfaling was the author of a manuscript translation entitled ‘A Discourse of Quintus Cicero to his brother Marcus concerning Suete for the Consulship,’ which is preserved in the Bodleian Library. Some Latin verses, ‘In tertiam sepulturam Katherinæ Petri Martyris uxoris carmen,’ affixed to the ‘Historia vera de Vita Obituque … D. Martini Buceri et Pauli Fagii’ of Conradus Hubertus (Strasburg, 1562, 4to), are signed ‘Harbertus West.,’ and are perhaps written by Westfaling. Some poems in Latin and English by him are preserved in the library of Cambridge University (MS. Ff. v. 14).
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 365, 719–721, 750, ii. 845–6; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 200; Le Neve's Fasti Eccles. Anglicanæ; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.-Hib.; Wood's Hist. and Antiq. of the University of Oxford, ed. Gutch, vol. ii. passim.]
WESTFIELD, THOMAS (1573–1644), bishop of Bristol, was born in the parish of St. Mary's, Ely, in 1573, 'and there bred at the free school under Master Spight.' He proceeded to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was elected a scholar, and afterwards held a fellowship from 1600 to 1603. He graduated B.A. in 1592-3, M.A. in 1596, and B.D. in 1604. He was incorporated B.D. at Oxford on 9 July 1611, proceeded D.D. at Cambridge in 1615, and was reincorporated D.D. at Oxford on 26 March 1644. On 5 Aug. 1619 he was admitted a student at Gray's Inn (Grays Inn Admission Reg. ed. Foster, p. 155).
After serving as curate at St. Mary-le-Bow under Nicholas Felton [q. v.] he was presented to the rectory of South Somercotes in Lincolnshire in 1600, which he exchanged on 18 Dec. 1605 for the London living of St. Bartholomew, Smithfield. On 28 April 1615 he was appointed to the rectory of Hornsey, which he retained until 1637. On 12 April 1614 he was nominated to the prebend of Ealdstreet in St. Paul's Church, which on 1 March 1614-15 he exchanged for that of Cadington Major. On 14 Nov. 1631 he was collated archdeacon of St. Albans, and on 17 Dec. 1633 was included in a royal commission to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction in England and Wales (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1633-4, p. 327).
On the outbreak of the civil war he continued to reside in London, but, falling under suspicion of royalist sympathies (cf. ib. 1640, p. 664), he was 'abused in the streets and sequestered from St. Bartholomew.' He fled to the king, and on 26 April 1642 was consecrated bishop of Bristol, in succession to
