WILLIAM OF EDYNDON

Bishop, chancellor of England; b. Edington, Wiltshire, England; d. Oct. 1366. He had probably studied at Oxford before joining the household of Bp. adam of orleton (1332). His royal offices included that of keeper of the wardrobe (1341), treasurer of the exchequer (1344), and then chancellor of England (1356–63). He is remembered for providing new windows in the clerestory of the nave in the church of the Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester, and for spending £1,000 on restoration of the hospital buildings and improvement of the condition of the almsmen while he was master there (1334–46). At the request of King edward iii he was made bishop of winchester in 1346. Under him the west end of the nave of Winchester cathedral, the two west bays on the north side, and one west bay on the south side were rebuilt and the construction of the presbytery was completed. He built a church in his birthplace and established there a college for a warden and secular priests, which he converted into a convent for Bonshommes, under a rector.

Bibliography: d. knowles and r. n. hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales 179. r. l. poole, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 6:386–387. t. f. tout, Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England 6 v. (New York 1920–33). a. b. emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500 1:629–630. m. mckisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307–1399 (Oxford 1959).

[v. mudroch]