Croyden Aug. ye last, 1638. W. Cant.[1]
Lo. Bishop of Chester."Ever since bishop Bridgeman's appointment to the see of Chester the episcopal palace had been very unhealthy as a residence, the chief cause of which appears to have been the unworthy uses to which the adjoining property of the dean and chapter were applied. For long the bishop tried to get the nuisance remedied by appeals to the dean and chapter, but without success. At length he complained of the abuse to archbishop Laud, by whose means he accomplished his purpose. Laud's position at this time was a peculiar one. From the first accession of Charles I. he exercised an influence over the King, being then bishop of St. David's, and subsequently bishop of Bath and Wells. When he was made bishop of London, in 1628, his influence became greater; and after the death of Buckingham, in 1629, he was made the King's chief adviser; so that when he succeeded George Abbot as archbishop of Canterbury, in 1633, he practically had the government of the church of England in his own hands, which he exercised to a considerable extent in the Northern as well as the Southern Province.
At the present time we can hardly realize the high position occupied by an archbishop of Canterbury in those days. As lord primate he was, next to royalty, the first peer of the realm; but in Laud's case the position was still higher as prime minister or chief counsellor of the King. English nobles and foreign ministers paid their court to him at Lambeth. The interior courts of his palace there were filled with men-at-arms and horsemen; and while holding a levée, or granting an interview,
- ↑ Family Evidences.
