John Vesey or Veysey ( – 23 October 1554) was Bishop of Exeter from 1519 until his death in 1554, having been briefly deposed 1551–3 by King

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

for his opposition to the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

Origins

Moor Hall - 2016-08-28 - Andy Mabbett - 04 CROP

He was born (as "John Harman"), probably in about 1462, the son of William Harman, Esquire, of Moor Hall in the manor of Sutton Coldfield in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

, a minor member of the county gentry, who bore arms of: ''Argent, on a cross sable a buck's head cabossed couped between four doves of the field''. He is believed to have adopted the surname "Vesey" in lieu of his patronymic after his tutor of that name. His mother was Joan Squier, daughter and heiress of Henry Squier of Handsworth in Staffordshire.

Career

He received his education at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained a doctorate in

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and civil law. After ordination he was appointed Rector of St Mary's Church, Chester. In 1527 he founded a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

for boys in Sutton Coldfield, which survives today as

Bishop Vesey's Grammar School Bishop Vesey's Grammar School (BVGS) is a selective state grammar school with academy status in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands. Founded in 1527, it is one of the oldest schools in Britain, the oldest state school in the West Midlands and th ...

. Vesey became a friend of

Thomas Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's Lord High Almoner, almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the ...

who was also educated at Magdalen College. From some unknown date until 1508 Vesey served as

Archdeacon of Barnstaple The Archdeaconry of Barnstaple or Barum is one of the oldest archdeaconries in England. It is an administrative division of the Diocese of Exeter in the Church of England. History The Diocese of Exeter was divided into four archdeaconries in No ...

in North Devon. In 1509 Wolsey became a Canon of Windsor and Chaplain to King

Henry VIII of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. Vesey was appointed a Canon of Exeter Cathedral in Devon. Vesey became the Bishop of Exeter in 1519 and the King awarded him the temporalities of the See of Exeter, worth about £1,500 a year. He was consecrated a bishop on 6 November 1519 by

William Warham William Warham ( – 22 August 1532) was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1503 to his death. Early life and education Warham was the son of Robert Warham of Malshanger in Hampshire. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford ...

, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by

John Fisher John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535) was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal, and theologian. Fisher was also an academic and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI. Fisher was executed by o ...

, Bishop of Rochester, and Thomas Halsey, Suffragan Bishop of

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and

Bishop of Leighlin The Lord Bishop of Leighlin was a separate episcopal title which took its name after the small town of Old Leighlin in County Carlow, Ireland. The title is now united with other bishoprics. In the Church of Ireland, it is held by the Lord Bis ...

. In 1527 he acquired a 40 acre plot of land close to his birthplace on which he built a grand house ( named Moor Hall (after his father's home), where he occasionally lived, today the site of Moor Hall Hotel. The town of his birth benefited greatly from his wealth. The township of Sutton Coldfield had fallen on hard times and Vesey took it on himself to restore the fortunes of the town and its inhabitants. He prevailed upon the King to grant a

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...

of incorporation for the town in 1528; this entrusted the government of the town to a warden and to 24 local inhabitants known together as the "Warden and Society of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield". Vesey is credited by the historian

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with rebuilding the aisles of Holy Trinity Church, Sutton Coldfield, reviving the markets and building a

marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...

, paving the town, building two stone bridges, founding and endowing a free grammar school (Bishop Vesey's Grammar School), and building 51 stone houses, at least four of which survive. Vesey survived the fall of Wolsey in 1529 and prospered reasonably under

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false char ...

until 1551, when his opposition to the

caught up with him and he was deprived by King

of his bishopric and its temporalities in exchange for a pension of £485 a year. He was restored to the See of Exeter when the Roman Catholic Queen Mary came to the throne in 1553. His coat of arms as bishop was his paternal arms differenced by the addition of a chief, namely: ''Argent, on a cross sable a buck's head cabossed between four doves of the first on a chief azure a cross flory between two roses or''. Sutton Coldfield was granted the Royal

Tudor Rose The Tudor rose (sometimes called the Union rose) is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the House of Tudor, which united the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The Tudor rose consists o ...

by King Henry VIII in thanks for being aided by a young woman who shot dead, with an arrow, a wild boar which was charging at the King in 1528. He asked for the person responsible to come forward and a young woman from Sutton Coldfield came out of the trees. Vesey, a close friend of the King, was present at the incident. They also returned dispossessed land to the young woman's family.

Death, burial & succession

He died on 23 October 1554 and was buried at Holy Trinity Church, Sutton Coldfield, in which survives his monument, comprising his recumbent effigy on a

chest tomb Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and comm ...

. It is nowadays visited as part of an annual ceremony by the school he founded. His heir was his nephew John Harman (fl.1557/9), the son of his brother Hugh Harman (d.1528) of Moor Hall, who appears to have sold Moor Hall to John Richardson (d.1584).

In Literature

Vesey's life was the subject of various works by Alderman John Willmott: the play ''Pageant'' in 1928 (written for the 400th anniversary of Sutton Coldfield's royal charter), ''Vesey'' in 1935 (written for the silver jubilee of

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

and starring Wilmott himself as Vesey), and a 1948 historical fiction book called ''Tales of a Bishop and a Royal Town'' (published by Green & Welburn Ltd of Birmingham in 1948). Wilmott served as a governor of Bishop Vesey Grammar School and, like Vesey, would also have a secondary school in the town named after him.

References

Sources

* George Oliver, ''The Lives of the Bishops of Exeter'', 1861. * Fryer, Geoffrey R.D. (1997), ''John Veysey and His World: A Biography of Bishop Veysey (c.1465–1554) of Sutton Coldfield'': published by the author. .

External links

Birmingham city Tourism page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vesey, John 1460s births 1554 deaths Bishops of Exeter 16th-century English Roman Catholic bishops Deans of Windsor Deans of Exeter Founders of English schools and colleges Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford People from Sutton Coldfield Canons of Windsor Deans of the Chapel Royal 15th-century English clergy Archdeacons of Barnstaple Burials in West Midlands (region)