John Vesey
Encyclopedia
Life
He was born John Harman, probably about 1462, the son of a yeomanYeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
farmer, in a farmhouse now known as Moor Hall Farm, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...
. He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
where he was awarded a doctorate in Canon and Civil Law
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different...
and after ordination was appointed Rector of St Mary's, Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
.
He became a friend of Thomas Wolsey, also educated at Magdalen. Until 1508 he was Archdeacon of Barnstaple
Archdeacon of Barnstaple
The Archdeaconry of Barnstaple is one of the oldest Archdeaconries in England. It is an administrative division of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter.-History:...
. In 1509, Wolsey became a Canon of Windsor
Dean and Canons of Windsor
The Dean and Canons of Windsor are the ecclesiastical body of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.-Foundation:The college of Canons was established in 1348 by Letters Patent of King Edward III. The college was formally constituted on the Feast of St...
and Chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...
to Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, and Vesey was appointed a Canon of Exeter
Exeter Cathedral
Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....
. Vesey was promoted Bishop of Exeter
Bishop of Exeter
The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The incumbent usually signs his name as Exon or incorporates this in his signature....
in 1519 and the King awarded him the temporalities of the see, worth about £1,500 a year. The town of his birth was to benefit greatly from his wealth. In 1527, he obtained permission to enclose a large plot of land close to his birthplace and built a grand house, (which is now the site of Moor Hall Hotel
Moor Hall Hotel
The Moor Hall Hotel is a hotel in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, UK.-History:First records of Moor Hall date back to the 15th century when it was owned by a Roger Harwell....
) where he occasionally lived, in great style.
The township of Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...
had fallen on hard times and he took it on himself to restore the fortunes of the town and its inhabitants. He prevailed upon the King to grant the town a Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
of incorporation for Sutton in 1528 which entrusted the government of the town to a warden and 24 local inhabitants known together as the Warden and Society of the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield.
He is credited with rebuilding the aisles of the church, reviving the markets and building a Market place, paving the town, building two stone bridges, founding and endowing a Free Grammar School, Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
Bishop Vesey's Grammar School
Bishop Vesey's Grammar School is a selective state grammar school in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham. Founded in 1527, it is one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. The school was a day and boarding school until the 1880s, and retained a small number of boarders in the mid-20th century...
, and building 51 stone houses.
He survived the fall of Wolsey in 1529 and prospered reasonably under Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, , was an English statesman who served as chief minister of King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540....
until 1551, where his opposition to Protestant reform caught up with him. He was deprived of his see, and its temporalities, in exchange for a pension of £485 a year. He was restored to the see of Exeter when Queen Mary came to the throne in 1553. He died in 1554 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church on Trinity Hill, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...
, which is annually visited by the school in a ceremony.
Sutton Coldfield was granted the Royal Tudor Rose
Tudor rose
The Tudor Rose is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the Tudor dynasty.-Origins:...
by King Henry VIII in thanks for being aided by a young lady who shot dead, with an arrow, a wild boar which was charging at the King. He asked for the person responsible to come forward and a young lady of Sutton Coldfield came out of the trees. He also granted the town his Tudor Rose. Bishop Vesey, a close friend of the King, was in attendance at this incident. They also returned dispossessed land to the young lady's family.