ROBERTS
,
WILLIAM
(
1585
-
1665
),
bishop of Bangor
;
b. at
Maes Maen Cymro
,
Llanynys, Denbs.
, the son of
Symon
Roberts
and of
Cicilie
(or
Sisle
), daughter of
Edward
Goodman
of
Ruthin
, who was nephew to
Gabriel
Goodman
(q.v.)
. He entered
Queens’ College
,
Cambridge
, at
Easter, 1605
, graduating
B.A.
1609
,
M.A.
1612
,
B.D.
1621
,
D.D.
1626
, and was
Fellow of the College
,
1611-30
. Ordained at
Peterborough
in
1616
, he became
prebendary
of
Lincoln
and
sub-dean
of
Wells
,
1619-38
. Through the influence of
Laud
, whose ecclesiastical views he shared, he was
elected to the see of Bangor
in
1637
, and allowed to hold with it the livings of
Llandyrnog
and
Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch, Denbs.
, and the
archdeaconries
of
Bangor
and
Anglesey
. For subscribing
the ‘non-resistance’ canons and clerical benevolence in the convocation of
May 1640
, he was impeached by the
Commons
, with the
bishops
of
S. Asaph
,
Llandaff
, and nine others,
4 Aug. 1641
,
Arthur
Trevor
(see
Trevor
of
Brynkynallt
) being assigned as one of their counsel (
16 Nov.
); but through delaying tactics and pressure of other business the case fizzled out in Dec. During the
Civil War
he sheltered at
Bangor
the violently
royalist
bishop of Rochester
,
John
Warner
. Deprived of his see under the Ordinance of
9 Oct. 1646
, he appears to have retired to
Llanelidan, Denbs.
On
25 June 1649
he compounded for his private estate by a fine (at one-sixth) of £66 10s., but on
18 Nov. 1652
was included as a traitor in the
Additional Ordinance
for the sale of delinquents’ estates. Part was sold, but he was allowed to buy back the remainder on payment of a further fine of one-third (£54) on
24 Dec. 1653
. At the
Restoration
he recovered his see and his livings, and was zealous in restoring the services and fabric of his cathedral after the disuse of the Interregnum. He d. at
Llandyrnog
,
12 Aug. 1665
, and was buried there. In his will he left £100 each towards the
decoration of the cathedral choir
and the
establishment of exhibitions for boys of his diocese
at
Queens’
,
Cambridge
, and at
Jesus
,
Oxford
, and a further £200 for victims of the
plague
in
London
.
Bibliography:
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
, xlvii;
-
J. Y. W. Lloyd
History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher,
and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog
, iii, 63-6;
-
Venn
Alumni Cantabrigienses
, I, iii, 467;
-
R. Newcome
,
A memoir of Gabriel Goodman Dean of
Westminster during forty years of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, the restorer of the wardenship of Ruthin with
some account of Ruthin school, and the names of its most
eminent scholars, etc
, 1825
,
1825
App. S.;
-
The Journals of the House of
Commons
, ii, 234-5; L.J., 340-472;
-
Calendar of the Committee for Advance of
Money, 1642–56
. Record Publication, 1888
. i, 262;
-
Firth and Rait
,
Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum,
1642–1660
, 1911
, ii, 634, 638;
-
Reports of the ‘Historical
Manuscripts Commission
, 7th R., 104;
-
R. S. Bosher
,
The Making of the Restoration Settlement the
influence of the Laudians, 1649-1662
, 1951
,
1951
, 125 n
Author:
Emeritus Professor Arthur Herbert Dodd, M.A., (1891-1975), Bangor
