William Fleetwood (1 January 16564 August 1723) was an English preacher,
Bishop of St Asaph
The Bishop of St Asaph heads the Church in Wales diocese of St Asaph.
The diocese covers the counties of Conwy and Flintshire, Wrexham county borough, the eastern part of Merioneth in Gwynedd and part of northern Powys. The Episcopal seat is loca ...
and
Bishop of Ely
The Bishop of Ely is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with a section of nort ...
, remembered by economists and statisticians for constructing a
price index in his ''Chronicon Preciosum'' of 1707.
Life
![Memorial to Bishop William Fleetwood in Ely Cathedral](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Memorial_to_Bishop_William_Fleetwood_in_Ely_Cathedral.jpg)
Fleetwood was descended of an ancient Lancashire family, and was born in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
on New Year's Day 1656. He received his education at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and at
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
. About the time of the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
he took orders, and was shortly afterwards made rector of St Austin's, London, and lecturer of St Dunstan's in the West. He became a canon of Windsor in 1702, and in 1708 he was nominated to the see of St Asaph, from which he was translated in 1714 to that of Ely. He died at Tottenham, Middlesex, on 4 August 1723.
Fleetwood was regarded as the best preacher of his time. He was accurate in learning, and effective in delivery, and his character stood deservedly high in general estimation. In episcopal administration he far excelled most of his contemporaries. He was a zealous Hanoverian, and a favourite with
Queen Anne in spite of his
Whiggism
Whiggism (in North America sometimes spelled Whigism) is a political philosophy that grew out of the Parliamentarian faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651). The Whigs' key policy positions were the supremacy of Parliament (as ...
. His opposition to the doctrine of non-resistance brought him into conflict with the Tory ministry of 1712 and with
Swift
Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to:
* SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks
** SWIFT code
* Swift (programming language)
* Swift (bird), a family of birds
It may also refer to:
Organizations
* SWIFT, ...
, but he never entered into personal controversy.
His principal writings are ''An Essay on Miracles'' (1701); ''Chronicum preciosum'' (an account of the English coinage, 1707); and ''Free Sermons'' (1712), containing discourses on the death of Queen Mary, the Duke of Gloucester and King William. The preface to this last was condemned to public burning by Parliament, but, as No. 384 of ''The Spectator, '' circulated more widely than ever. A collected edition of his works, with a biographical preface, was published in 1737.
His memorial by
monumental masons
Monumental masonry (also known as memorial masonry) is a kind of stonemasonry focused on the creation, installation and repairs of headstones (also known as gravestones and tombstones) and other memorials.
Cultural significance
In Christian cu ...
Edward Stanton (sculptor)
Edward Stanton (1681–1734) was an English stonemason, builder and sculptor.
Life
He was the son of William Stanton, mason (1639–1705) and was apprenticed to his father, along with his brother, Thomas Stanton, and admitted a membe ...
and
Christopher Horsnaile is in the north chancel aisle of
Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.
The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The presen ...
.
''Chronicon Preciosum''
In the (anonymously published) ''Chronicon Preciosum'' Fleetwood asked, how much would £5 in 1440 buy ''today''? The question (''the case'') arose because a correspondent would lose the fellowship of an Oxford college if he had outside income in excess of £5; the college statute was composed in 1440. Fleetwood showed how much bread, drink, meat, cloth and books could be purchased at the earlier and later dates. He tabulated the changing prices of many commodities and noted that most of the prices grew at the same rate. He concluded that £5 in the fifteenth century would be worth £28 or £30 today, at the beginning of the eighteenth.
Adam Smith
Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...
used some of Fleetwood's data in ''
The Wealth of Nations
''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', generally referred to by its shortened title ''The Wealth of Nations'', is the ''magnum opus'' of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1 ...
'' (1776), but did not develop—or even adopt—the idea of comparing purchasing power at different dates. Admiration for Fleetwood's work and efforts to build on it only came in the nineteenth century. For
Edgeworth
Edgeworth may refer to:
People
* Edgeworth (surname)
Places
* Edgeworth, Gloucestershire, England
* Edgeworth, New South Wales, Australia
* Edgeworth, Pennsylvania, USA
* Edgeworth Island, Nunavut, Canada
* Edgeworthstown, County Longford, Repu ...
the ''Chronicon Preciosum'' was "the oldest and one of the best treatises on index-numbers."
Fleetwood's sermons often dealt with subjects of economic interest. For example, his sermon against clipping (of gold coins), delivered before the Lord Mayor of London, explained the function of money and the "mischiefs of corrupting and debasing money." He published his sermon on paying debts during the
South Sea panic.
Fleetwood seems to have been a practical Christian and, from the account of his life, a very political bishop.
Economic writings
* ''A Sermon against Clipping'' (London, 1694)
* ''Chronicon Preciosum: or An Account of English Money, the Price of Corn and Other Commodities, for the Last 600 Years'' (London, 1707) The work appeared in his collected works of 1737 and was reissued in 1745 with a longer title and under the author's name.
* ''The Justice of Paying Debts'' (1718)
References
Further reading
*
*
*
Resources and external links
''Chronicon Preciosum''fro
Paulette Taieb's site*
Works of William Fleetwood
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleetwood, William
1656 births
1723 deaths
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Bishops of Ely
Bishops of St Asaph
18th-century British economists
English statisticians
18th-century Welsh Anglican bishops
English sermon writers
Canons of Windsor
18th-century Church of England bishops
17th-century English economists