Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/438

 

CHADERTON, CHADDERTON, or CHATTERTON, WILLIAM, D.D. (1540?–1608), successively bishop of Chester and Lincoln, was born about 1540 at Nuthurst, a hamlet of Moston in the ancient parish of Manchester. He was the younger son of Edmund Chadderton, by his wife, Margaret Cliffe of Cheshire. The Chaddertons were an ancient family, descended from Geoffrey de Trafford, the younger son of Richard de Trafford, who about 1200 received from his father the manor of Chadderton. Chadderton was educated at the Manchester grammar school, and afterwards successively at Magdalene and Pembroke Colleges, Cambridge. He matriculated as a pensioner of Pembroke in November 1553. He took his degree of B.A. in 1558, and in the same year was chosen fellow of Christ's College. He became M.A. in 1561, B.D. in 1566, and D.D. in 1568. On the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Cambridge in 1564 he was appointed, with Thomas Cartwright (1535–1603) [q. v.] and others, to take part in the philosophy act kept before her majesty in Great St. Mary's on 7 Aug. to her great satisfaction. Chadderton's speech is printed by Nichols (Progresses of Elizabeth, iii. 68, ed. 1805). Perhaps it was on this occasion that he ingratiated himself with Cecil as well as with the Earl of Leicester, whose chaplain he afterwards became. He was chosen to succeed Whitgift as Lady Margaret professor of divinity in 1567. The next year, on the death of John Stokes, the influence of Sir William Cecil and the court procured his election as president of Queens' College, 7 May 1568. He returned thanks to his patron in a servile Latin letter. Stokes had also been archdeacon of York, and on the 31st of the same month, by the same influence, the new president was appointed his successor. Soon after his election to the presidentship, being minded to marry, he applied for leave to his other powerful patron Dudley, earl of Leicester. The earl's reply is printed by Peck (Desiderata Curiosa, bk. iii. No. 3), who finds much to divert him in Leicester's gravity in ‘writing like a saint.’ The earl's permission having been granted, Chadderton married Katherine, daughter of John Revell of London, by whom he had an only daughter, Joan. Chadderton took a leading part at this time in university affairs. The town was out of favour with the Duke of Norfolk, then high steward of the town, on account of some municipal squabbles, and Chadderton was despatched to Cecil, then the chancellor, by the vice-chancellor and heads, 7 Aug. 1569, to influence the duke against the town. Chadderton succeeded Whitgift as regius professor of divinity at the close of 1569. His place as Lady Margaret professor was filled by Thomas Cartwright, who at once began to attack the existing form of church government. We find Chadderton speedily calling upon Cecil (11 June 1570) to use his authority as chancellor to repress this ‘pernicious teaching, not tolerable for a christian commonwealth’ (State Papers, Dom. Eliz., lxxi. 11). In the bitter controversies between the puritans and the moderate Anglicans Chadderton actively sided with the latter, and was charged by Dering with being ‘an enemy of God's gospel’ with ‘small constancy either in his life or his religion’ (, Parker, App. No. 78). He was, one of Whitgift's assessors when Cartwright was brought to trial before him, and fully concurred in his removal from his professorship, 11 Dec. 1570. Chadderton delivered the Lady Margaret lectures in Cartwright's place, and when, in the following September, Cartwright was deprived of his fellowship, he was one of the heads who wrote to Cecil entreating him to support Whitgift in this exercise of authority (, Whitgift, bk. i. ch. 5. N.B.—Strype's date, 1572, is erroneous). In 1572 Chadderton made an unsuccessful application to Cecil for the deanery of Winchester, which would deliver him from the slavery of public lectures (Baker MS. iv. 190;, Hist. of Queens' College, p. 308). On 16 Feb. 1574 he received the prebendal stall of Fenton in York Minster, to which on 5 Nov. 1576 was added a prebend of Westminster. He resigned the archdeaconry of York in 1575. A letter printed by Peck (Desid. Cur. bk. iii. No. 7; STRYPE, Annals, vol. ii. bk. ii. ch. 13), addressed to Chadderton by some leading person about the court, shows that he had given offence by political sermons. A disagreeable story is preserved by Strype (Parker, bk. iv. ch. 40) about a sermon preached by Chadderton at Paul's Cross, reflecting on Dr. Cox, then bishop of Ely, and even on Parker himself, for remissness in enforcing conformity, with the view, it was said, of getting Cox's bishopric. It is more pleasant to learn that during his residence at Cambridge he joined with Dr. Lancelot Andrewes, Dr. Knewstubbs, and others in weekly conferences on holy scripture. Sir John Harington (State of the Church of England) describes Chadderton, whom he remembered well at Cambridge, 