John Wakeman (died 1549) was an English

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

, the last Abbot of Tewkesbury and first

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, both posts in the

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county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

. In the earlier part of his life he went by the name John Wiche.

Life

He was the second son of William Wakeman of

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Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

. He supplicated in the name of John Wyche, for the degree of

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on 3 February 1511. On 19 March 1534 a '' congé d'élire'' was issued for the election of an abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Tewkesbury to replace Henry Beeley, deceased. On 27 April 1534 the royal assent was given to the election of John Wiche, late prior, as abbot. The temporalities were restored on 10 June. Wiche had secured his own appointment by intrigue, obtaining the interest of

Sir William Kingston Sir William Kingston, Order of the Garter, KG ( – 14 September 1540) was an English courtier, soldier and administrator. He was the Constable of the Tower, Constable of the Tower of London during much of the reign of Henry VIII. Among the no ...

and of

Thomas Cromwell Thomas Cromwell (; – 28 July 1540) was an English statesman and lawyer who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false cha ...

, and by then persuading his brethren to refer the election to the king's pleasure. At the end of July 1535 both Cromwell and the king were staying at the monastery, and in October Wiche sent Cromwell a gelding and £5 to buy him a saddle. He supplied information to the government on the disaffection of one of his priors. On 9 January 1539 he surrendered his monastery, receiving an annuity of four hundred marks. He then seems to have taken the name Wakeman, by which he was afterwards known. On his nomination to the newly erected

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in September 1541 this pension was vacated. The date of the letters patent for the erection of the bishopric is 3 September 1541. Wakeman was consecrated by

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a theologian, leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...

Edmund Bonner Edmund Bonner (also Boner; c. 15005 September 1569) was Bishop of London from 1539 to 1549 and again from 1553 to 1559. Initially an instrumental figure in the schism of Henry VIII from Rome, he was antagonised by the Protestant reforms introdu ...

, and

Thomas Thirlby Thomas Thirlby (or Thirleby; –1570), was the first and only bishop of Westminster (1540–50), and afterwards successively bishop of Norwich (1550–54) and bishop of Ely (1554–59). While he acquiesced in the Henrician schism, with its rej ...

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in September 1541. In 1547 he attended the funeral of

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, and on 19 February of the same year assisted at the consecration of

Arthur Bulkeley Arthur Bulkeley (died 1553) was Bishop of Bangor from 1541 until his death in 1553. Bulkeley was born in Beaumaris, Anglesey. He was a graduate of Oxford University and in 1523 became Rector of St Peter-le-Bailey, Oxford. Later he was the inc ...

bishop of Bangor The Bishop of Bangor is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Diocese of Bangor of the Church in Wales. The Episcopal see, see is based in the city of Bangor where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Bangor Cathedral, Cathedral Church of Sa ...

. Wakeman must have had some pretensions to scholarship and theology. In 1542, when Cranmer was projecting a revision of the translation of the ''

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

'', he assigned the Revelation to Wakeman, with John Chambers, bishop of Peterborough, as his colleague. Wakeman died early in December 1549. His place of burial is uncertain, he is said to have died at Forthampton. While abbot of Tewkesbury, Wakeman constructed a

cadaver tomb A cadaver monument or ''transi'' is a type of funerary art, funerary monument to a deceased person, featuring a sculpted tomb effigy of a skeleton, or of an emaciated or decomposing dead body, with closed eyes. It was particularly characteristic ...

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...

in Tewkesbury Abbey, on the north-east side of the high altar, which is still to be seen. His nephew Richard was great-grandfather of Sir George Wakeman.

References

----------------------- {{DEFAULTSORT:Wakeman, John 1549 deaths English Benedictines Abbots of Tewkesbury Bishops of Gloucester 16th-century English bishops People associated with the Dissolution of the Monasteries Year of birth missing Clergy from Worcestershire Burials at Gloucester Cathedral 16th-century Anglican theologians People from Wyre Forest District 16th-century Christian abbots 16th-century English abbots