FLEETWOOD, WILLIAM (1656 - 1723), bishop and antiquary
Name: William Fleetwood
Date of birth: 1656
Date of death: 1723
Gender : Male
Occupation: bishop and antiquary
Area of activity: History and Culture; Religion; Scholarship and Languages
Author: Robert Thomas Jenkins
Born 1 January 1656 — the D.N.B. has a full account of his life. He was bishop of St Asaph 1708-14, and afterwards of Ely; he was a zealous Whig, and suffered in consequence in the last years of Anne’s reign. As bishop of St Asaph, he was ‘far above the standards of his age’; in his charge of 1710 he exhorted his clergy to preach in Welsh. He was interested in the history of his diocese, and there are notes by him on that subject in the palace library of St Asaph; he gave much help to Browne Willis and other antiquaries; and in 1713 published The life and miracles of St. Wenefrede , in which he attacked the making of pilgrimages to Holywell. He was a remarkably eloquent preacher, and a number of his sermons appeared in print. He died 4 August 1723.
