Everything about Thomas Rotherham totally explained
Thomas Rotherham, also known as
Thomas (Scot) de Rotherham (
August 24 1423 –
May 29 1500), was an
English cleric and
statesman.
Life
Born in
Rotherham,
South Yorkshire, Thomas was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Rotherham, of Brookgate in
Rotherham, and his wife, Alice Scot. He was first educated as a young boy by a teacher of grammar, who came, according to Thomas, "I know not by what fate save it was the Grace of God". Afterwards he was sent to the newly founded
Eton College in order to prepare for university entrance.
He attended
King's College, Cambridge, becoming a
Bachelor of Divinity and a
Fellow of Kings, and lectured on Grammar, Theology and Philosophy. After his
ordination as a
priest he served in many powerful positions in the Church, becoming
Prebendary of
Lincoln in
1462 and of
Salisbury in
1465. He was appointed
Bishop of Rochester in
1468,
Bishop of Lincoln in
1472, and then
Archbishop of York from
1480 to
1500.
King Edward IV appointed him
Keeper of the Privy Seal in
1467. In 1468 he became ambassador to France and joint ambassador to Burgundy in
1471. He was
Lord Chancellor of England twice, from
1474 to
1483 and again briefly in
1485. Rotherham was one of the celebrants of the funeral mass for Edward IV on
April 20 1483.
After Edward's death, there followed a struggle for the throne.
Edward V was deposed and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, became
Richard III. Thomas Rotherham was imprisoned in the
Tower of London for his loyalty to
Elizabeth Woodville, Edward's Queen. He had released the Great Seal to her when she went into sanctuary at Westminster, but having rethought the idea, he recovered it from the dowager queen. Eventually the Seal ended up in the hands of
Thomas Bourchier. The imprisonment lasted from
June 13 1483 to the middle of July. Under
Henry VII he was deprived of the Chancellorship. After this he retired from most public work. He died of
the plague at
Cawood, (near
York) on
May 29 1500. at Cambridge, where he was four times Chancellor and Master of
Pembroke Hall, he helped to build the University Library.
In 1480 he endowed a Chapel of Jesus within Rotherham parish church, with a priest to sing masses for the souls of his ancestors. He founded The College of Jesus in Rotherham as a memorial to his first teacher.
[ The foundations of the red brick College were laid at his birthplace in Brookgate in March 1482 and a licence was granted on 22 January 1483 "for the honour and glory of the name of Jesus Christ to found a perpetual College". ]
The statutes of the College were dated 1 February 1483. The College of Jesus was to consist of a Provost and three Fellows, all to be in Holy Orders, who must attend church on Sundays and Holy Days. The Fellows were to teach grammar and train the six choristers of Jesus in song and music. They were also to teach promising boys who didn't aspire to the priesthood, reading, writing and reckoning, free of charge. If the boys continued to show merit they could learn the rudiments of grammar and music. The college was later dissolved around 1550 by Edward VI and all its possessions seized by the crown. Very little now remains of the original building, although the street is still known as College Street.
He is still remembered in the name of Thomas Rotherham College
, which is the post-1967 descendant of Rotherham Grammar School for Boys, which had its origins in the original College of Jesus.
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