Peter Mews

Theologian and bishop

Not to be confused with Peter Mews of Hinton Admiral.

The Right Reverend

Peter Mews

Bishop of Winchester

Portrait by Michael Dahl

Church| Church of England
Diocese| Winchester
Elected| 1684
Term ended| 1706
Predecessor| George Morley
Successor| Jonathan Trelawny
Previous post(s)| Archdeacon of Huntingdon (1649–1666)
canon of Windsor (1662–1673)
Archdeacon of Berkshire (1665–1673)
President of St John's College, Oxford (5 August 1667–1673)
Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1669–1673)
Dean of Rochester (1670–1673)
Bishop of Bath and Wells (19 December 1672 {elected}–November 1684)
Orders
Consecration| 9 February 1673
by Gilbert Sheldon
Personal details
Born| (1619-03-25)25 March 1619

Caundle Purse, Dorset, England

Died| 9 November 1706(1706-11-09) (aged 87)
Farnham Castle, Surrey, England
Buried| Winchester Cathedral
Nationality| English
Denomination| Anglican
Residence| Farnham Castle (as Bishop of Winchester)
Parents| Elisha Mews & Elizabeth Winniffe
Spouse| Mary Baylie
Profession| academic theologian; former Royalist army officer
Alma mater| St John's College, Oxford

Ordination history of
Peter Mews

| History

Diaconal ordination

Ordained by| Robert Skinner (Oxford)
Date| 14 January 1645
Place| Chapel, Trinity College, Oxford

Priestly ordination

Date| c. 1646

Episcopal consecration

Principal consecrator| Gilbert Sheldon
Co-consecrators| Humphrey Henchman
John Dolben
Anthony Sparrow
Isaac Barrow
Peter Gunning
Nathaniel Crew
John Pritchett
Date| 9 February 1673

Source(s):[1]

Peter Mews (25 March 1619 – 9 November 1706) was an English Royalist theologian and bishop. He was a captain captured at Naseby and he later had discussions in Scotland for the Royalist cause. Later made a bishop he would report on non-conformist families.

## Life

[edit]

Mews was born at Caundle Purse in Dorset, and was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, London, and at St John's College, Oxford, of which he was scholar and fellow.[2]

When the Civil War broke out in 1642, Mews joined the Royalist army, and, having been made a captain, was taken prisoner at Naseby; but he was soon released and in 1648 sought refuge in Holland. He became friendly with King Charles I's secretary, Sir Edward Nicholas, and being skilful at disguising himself was very useful to the Royalists during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, undertaking two journeys to Scotland in 1653. In August of that year, his friend Nicholas applied to Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange, to use her influence to get Mews a post as reader in philosophy at the Orange College of Breda, but had a reply from Hyde that the place called for a man "that hath not bene a truant from his bookes".[3]

Before this Mews had been ordained. Taking the degree of DCL and regaining his fellowship at Oxford after the Restoration, he became Archdeacon of Huntingdon, vicar of St Mary's, Reading, and chaplain to the King; then, having obtained two other livings, he was made canon of Windsor, canon of St David's, and Archdeacon of Berkshire (1665–1672).[citation needed]

In 1667, when at Breda arranging peace between England and the Dutch Republic, he was chosen President of St John's College, Oxford, in succession to his father-in-law, Richard Baylie, afterwards becoming Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford[4] and dean of Rochester. He was appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1672. He used his position to report on well-to-do non-conformist families. He gave Mary Speke and her family particular attention.[5]

Mews resigned his presidency at Oxford University in 1673, and in 1684 he was elected Bishop of Winchester, a position which this "old, honest cavalier," as Thomas Hearne calls him, filled until his death. The bishop is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Mews lent his carriage horses to pull the cannon at a critical moment during the Battle of Sedgemoor, where he was wounded whilst accompanying the royal army. He was, however, in sympathy with the Seven Bishops, and was only prevented by illness from attending their meeting; and as visitor of Magdalen College, Oxford, he supported the fellows in their resistance to James II, admitted their nominee, John Hough, to the presidency, and restored the ejected fellows in October 1688.[citation needed]

He took the oaths to William III and Mary II in 1689. In the absence of Henry Compton, Bishop of London, Mews took the chief part at the consecration of John Tillotson as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1691.[citation needed]

A portrait is displayed in the Great Hall of the 15th-century manor house, Athelhampton Hall, known as Athelhampton House, just a few miles outside Dorchester in Dorset. His portrait also hangs in the Long Gallery of the Bishop's Palace in Wells[6] and there is another[7] in the hall of Dunster Castle in Somerset.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Mews, Peter (1645–1699)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 7205. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
2. ^ Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Mascall-Meyrick
3. ^ William Holden Hutton, "Mews, Peter", in Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900), volume 37
4. ^ "Previous Vice-Chancellors". University of Oxford, UK. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
5. ^ Zook, Melinda S. (2013), Zook, Melinda S. (ed.), "A Dangerous Woman: Mary Speke, her Family, and the Puritan Gentry", Protestantism, Politics, and Women in Britain, 1660–1714, Early Modern History: Society and Culture, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 58–91, doi:10.1057/9781137303202_3, ISBN 978-1-137-30320-2, retrieved 5 May 2021
6. ^ [1]
7. ^ [2]

## Further reading

[edit]

* Stephen Hyde Cassan, Lives of the Bishops of Winchester, 1827.
* George F. Warner (ed.), Nicholas Papers, 1886–1897.

## Sources

[edit]

* This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mews, Peter". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 316–317.
* "Mews, Peter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18633. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
* "Mews, Peter (1645–1699)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. CCEd Person ID 7205. Retrieved 28 March 2015.

Academic offices

Preceded by

Richard Baylie

|  President of St John's College, Oxford
1667–1673  | Succeeded by

William Levinz

Preceded by

John Fell

|  Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University
1669–1673  | Succeeded by

Ralph Bathurst

Church of England titles
Preceded by

Nathaniel Hardy

|  Dean of Rochester
1670–1673  | Succeeded by

Thomas Lamplugh

Preceded by

Robert Creighton

|  Bishop of Bath and Wells
1673–1684  | Succeeded by

Thomas Ken

Preceded by

George Morley

|  Bishop of Winchester
1684–1706  | Succeeded by

Jonathan Trelawny

* v
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* e

Deans of Rochester

Early modern|

* Walter Phillips
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* Thomas Blague
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* Robert Scott (elder)
* Godfrey Goodman
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* Henry King
* Thomas Turner
* Benjamin Lany
* Nathaniel Hardy
* Peter Mews
* Thomas Lamplugh
* John Castilion
* Simon Lowth
* Henry Ullock
* Samuel Pratt
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Late modern|

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* Philip Hesketh

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Bishops of Bath and Wells

previous titles|

| Wells|

* Athelm
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* see removed to Bath

|

Bath|

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* see de jure removed to Glastonbury

Bath & Glastonbury|

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* Glastonbury claim abandoned

Bath|

* Jocelin of Wells (previously Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury)
* Roger of Salisbury (became Bishop of Bath and Wells)
* see became Bath and Wells

Medieval|

* see renamed from Bath
* Roger of Salisbury (previously Bishop of Bath)
* William of Bitton
* Walter Giffard
* William of Bitton (nephew)
* Robert Burnell
* William of March
* Walter Haselshaw
* John Droxford
* Ralph of Shrewsbury
* John Barnet
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* Walter Skirlaw
* Ralph Ergham
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* Thomas Beckington
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* Richard Foxe
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Early modern|

* Adriano Castellesi
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* John Clerk
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* Gilbert Berkeley
* Thomas Godwin
* John Still
* James Montague
* Arthur Lake
* William Laud
* Leonard Mawe
* Walter Curle
* William Piers
* Episcopacy abolished (Commonwealth)
* William Piers
* Robert Creighton
* Peter Mews
* Thomas Ken
* Richard Kidder
* George Hooper
* John Wynne
* Edward Willes
* Charles Moss

Late modern|

* Richard Beadon
* George Henry Law
* Richard Bagot
* Robert Eden
* Lord Arthur Hervey
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* Basil Wynne Willson
* Francis Underhill
* William Wand
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* Edward Henderson
* John Bickersteth
* George Carey
* Jim Thompson
* Peter Price
* Peter Maurice (acting diocesan)
* Peter Hancock
* Ruth Worsley (acting diocesan)
* Michael Beasley

* v
* t
* e

Bishops of Winchester

Early Medieval
634–1006|

* Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester
* Agilbert, Bishop of Dorchester
* Wine
* Leuthere
* Hædde
* Daniel
* Hunfrith
* Cyneheard
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* Ecgbald
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* Ælfheah I
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* Æthelwold I
* Ælfheah II

Arms of the Bishop of Winchester

High Medieval
1006–1304|

* Cenwulf
* Æthelwold II
* Ælfsige II
* Ælfwine
* Stigand
* Walkelin
* William Giffard
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* Andrew of London
* William de Taunton
* John Gervais
* Nicholas of Ely
* Robert Burnell
* Richard de la More
* John of Pontoise

Late Medieval
1305–1501|

* Henry Woodlock
* John Sandale
* Rigaud of Assier
* John de Stratford
* Adam Orleton
* William Edington
* William of Wykeham
* Henry Beaufort
* William Waynflete
* Peter Courtenay
* Thomas Langton

Early Modern
1501–1820|

* Richard Foxe
* Thomas Wolsey
* Stephen Gardiner
* John Ponet
* Stephen Gardiner
* John White
* Robert Horne
* John Watson
* Thomas Cooper
* William Wickham
* William Day
* Thomas Bilson
* James Montague
* Lancelot Andrewes
* Richard Neile
* Walter Curle
* Episcopacy abolished (Commonwealth)
* Brian Duppa
* George Morley
* Peter Mews
* Jonathan Trelawny
* Charles Trimnell
* Richard Willis
* Benjamin Hoadly
* John Thomas
* Brownlow North

Late Modern
1820–current|

* George Pretyman Tomline
* Charles Sumner
* Samuel Wilberforce
* Harold Browne
* Anthony Thorold
* Randall Davidson
* Herbert Ryle
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Authority control databases

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* United States

Other|

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