COLL P 14
Reference code
COLL P 14
Title
Papers of Provost Steward, 1639 - 1644
Level
Series
Administrative / Biographical history
Educated at Westminster School and Magdalen Hall, Oxford, Steward (c.1593-1651) was by training a lawyer. He became a Fellow of All Souls in 1613,a nd from 1620 on, when he became Rector of Harrietsham, Kent, accumulated a variety of preferments, including a prebend at Worcester (resigned in 1638 when he received one at Westminster), a canonry of Salisbury, and, in 1635, the Deanery of Chichester. In 1633 he was appointed Clerk of the Closet to Charles I and was subsequently nominated as Dean of St Paul's (1641), Dean of the Chapel Royal (1643) and Dean of Westminster (1645), although the first and last of these nominations were not effectual. His appointment to Eton was not according to the Statutes, as he had not been a member of either of the colleges of Henry VI.
He attached himself to the King on the outbreak of the Civil War, inconsiderately taking the College seal with him. He was stripped of his preferments, including, in February 1644, the Provostship of Eton but in 1645 was a Commissioner on behalf of the English church at the Uxbridge Conference. He went into exile on the continent and died in France, being visited on his deathbed by Charles II.
Date
1643
Extent & medium
1 item
Associated material
See MS.406 for letters written by Steward from exile
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