Tobias Mathew

1546 - 1628  (82 years)

• Name	Tobias Mathew
  Born	1546
  Gender	Male
  Died	29 Mar 1628
  Person ID	P44558360	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	10 Feb 2010

  
  

  Father	John Mathew
  Mother	Elinor Crofton
  Family ID	F2138	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Frances Barlow
  Last Modified	21 Jul 2019
  Family ID	F2139	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  He was brought up at Christ church, Oxford, D.D. and rose many steps by preferment. First Archdeacon of Wells, Priest of St. John's College, Oxford, Canon and Dean of Christ Church, Dean of Durham and lastly Archbishop of York, Sept. 11, 1606. Graduated at University College, Oxford, A.B. Feb. 1563/4. He was a member of Christ Church, taking degree of MA in July 1566. He was ordained the same year at which time he was much respected for his great learning, sweet coversation, friendly disposition, and sharpness of with. When Queen Elizabeth visted the University in Mary's Church on the 3rd of Sept., he argued in favor of an elective as against an hereditary monarchy. When the Queen left Christ Church on her departure from Oxford, he bad her farewell in and eloquent oration. His handsome presence and ready wit attrached the Queen's notice. He was an excellent preacher. The Queen continued her favor to him throughout her life and was equally kind to his wife, on whom she bestowed a fragment of a Unicorn's horn. His many offices included that of Dean of Durham in 1583, Bishop of Durham in 1595, Bishop of the Diocese and Archbishop of York. He had an admirable talent for preaching which he never suffered to lie idle, but used to go from one town to another to preach to crowded audiences. He kept an exact account of these sermons, by which it appears that he preached, when Dean of D Durham, 321; when Bishop of the Diocese, 550; when Archbishop of York, 721; in all 1592. In his day, though renowned as a preacher, he was a statesman quite as much as a prelate. The advisors of Elizabeth and James felt that they could rely upon him to watch and guard the Northern Shires. He died March 29, 1628 and was buried in York Minster, where his tomb stands. The effigy now separated, in the northside of the Presbytery. He married Frances Barlow, daughter of Sir William Barlow, Sr. who died in 1568, sometime Bishop of Chichester and Wells. She is described as a prudent and provident matron and died May 10, 1629, and is described further as being memorable for having a Bishop for a Father, four Bishops for her Brothers-in-law, and an Archbishop for her husband. Her four sisters married Bishops. She gave his Library of more than three thousand volumes to the Cathedral of York. The portrait of Tobias Mathew in Christ Church, Oxford, shows him as a small man with a beard and moustache turning gray. Frances Barlow had previously been married to Matthew Parker, son of Archbishop Matthew Park of Canterbury (1559-1575). Tobias Mathew was a friend of the Stuart family and was entrusted with the entertainment of Arbella Stuart of Bishopthorpe in 1611. As a politcal agent in the North, he forced recusants to conform to the Church of England Info from: http://www.users.uswest.net/~butchmat/TobiasMathew.htm