Christopher Urswick (1448–1522) was a priest and confessor of
Margaret Beaufort. He was Rector of
Puttenham, Hertfordshire, and later
Dean of Windsor. Urswick is thought to have acted as a go-between in the plotting to place her son
Henry VII of England
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509), also known as Henry Tudor, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Henr ...
on the throne.
Early life and education
Urswick was born at
Furness
Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, Historic counties of England, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary author ...
in 1448. His father, John Urswick, and his mother were lay brother and sister of
Furness Abbey.
He was educated at
Lancaster Royal Grammar School (which was then called 'The Free School at Lancaster')
Career
He was
Archdeacon of Wilts (1488–1522),
Archdeacon of Richmond (1494–1500) and
Archdeacon of Norfolk (1500–1522). Circa 1486 he was given the prebend of Chiswick in
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...
. He was also
Dean of York from 1488 to 1494, a
Canon of
St George's Chapel, Windsor from 1492 to 1496 and then
Dean of Windsor from 1495 to 1505. He was the
Lord Almoner from 1485 to 1495.
He declined the position of
Bishop of Norwich
The Bishop of Norwich is the Ordinary (Catholic Church), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Norwich, Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. Th ...
in 1498 and was collated
Archdeacon of Oxford in 1504.
Amongst his more important positions, Urswick became Rector of
the Parish of Hackney in 1502, where he ordered the medieval parish church to be rebuilt.
St Augustine's Tower is the only remnant.
Death
Urswick died on 24 March 1522 in
Hackney (parish) and was buried in St Augustine's Church, Hackney.
Commemoration
He appears as a minor character in
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
's
Richard III
Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
.
He built a parish house in Hackney (Urswick House, now demolished), where he lived for a time. He is commemorated in Urswick Road in nearby
Homerton.
He founded
The Urswick School for 12 poor boys, which was until recently called Hackney Free and Parochial School in
Hackney Central. The Urswick Chantry in St. George's Chapel commemorates him.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Urswick, Christopher
1440s births
1522 deaths
16th-century English Roman Catholic priests
16th-century English clergy
15th-century English people
Archdeacons of Richmond
Archdeacons of Norfolk
Archdeacons of Wilts
Archdeacons of Oxford
Canons of Windsor
Deans of Windsor
Deans of York