# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Westfaling, Herbert

​WESTFALING or WESTPHALING, HERBERT (1532?–1602), bishop of Hereford, born in London about 1531 or 1532, was the son of Harbert Westphaling, a resident in London, and the grandson of Harbert, a native of Westphalia. He became a student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1547, supplicated B.A. in 1551, and graduated M.A. on 12 July 1555. On 12 Dec. 1561 he took the degree of B.D., and proceeded D.D. on 18 Feb. 1565–6. In 1560 he joined in a memorial to the Earl of Leicester requesting him to appoint the puritan Thomas Sampson [q. v.] dean of Christ Church (Strype, Annals of the Reformation, 1824, I. ii. 147–8). The application was successful. In the following year Westfaling was ordained priest by Edmund Grindal [q. v.], bishop of London, and on 7 March 1561–2 he was installed a canon of Christ Church, through the patronage of Sir William Cecil (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80, p. 195). On 16 Dec. 1562 he was appointed Margaret professor of divinity, but resigned the post in the beginning of 1564. In 1566 ‘he learnedly disputed before Queen Elizabeth in S. Mary's Church.’ On 26 Sept. 1567 he was collated treasurer of the diocese of London, and on 29 July 1572 was instituted rector of Brightwell Baldwin in Oxfordshire, which he received license to hold with his other preferments. On 23 June 1576 he was admitted vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford, and on 14 July he was nominated member of a commission appointed by Grindal to visit the city and diocese of Gloucester, where complaints had been made against the dean and chapter. Instructions were drawn up by the commission enjoining on them a more careful observance of their duties (Strype, Life of Grindal, 1821, pp. 315, 318, Life of Parker, 1821, i. 319). On 29 May 1577 he was appointed a canon of Windsor.
Westfaling was distinguished for his zeal for the conversion of Roman catholic recusants. In 1582 he published a controversial ​work entitled ‘A Treatise of Reformation in Religion, diuided into seuen Sermons preached in oxeford. … Hereunto are added two sermons touching the Supper of the Lorde’ (London, 4to), in which he justified the reformation of a religion in which God was not rightly served by the example of Christ casting the money-changers out of the Temple. In the same year he was included by the lords in council in a list of those divines whom they considered ‘fit and able persons’ to be employed in conferences with jesuits and other recusants (Strype, Annals, iii. i. 225, Life of Whitgift, 1822, i. 198). On 17 Nov. 1585 he was nominated bishop of Hereford, in succession to John Scory [q. v.], and was consecrated at Lambeth on 30 Jan. 1585–6 (Strype, Life of Whitgift, i. 466–7; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1589–90, p. 259). On 7 Oct. 1587 he sent a report, such as was demanded from most of the bishops, concerning the suitability of the justices of the peace in his diocese, and especially concerning their treatment of recusants (Strype, Annals, iii. i. 669, ii. 453–455). On 25 Dec. 1592 he made an oration before the queen in St. Mary's Church at Oxford. His exordium was tedious, and the queen ‘sent twice to him to cut it short, because she herself intended to make a public speech that evening.’ The bishop, however, refused to be compressed, and Elizabeth was obliged to defer her speech until the following day. Westfaling died on 1 March 1601–2, and was buried in the north transept of Hereford Cathedral. His will, dated 6 Aug. 1601, was proved on 10 April 1602. By it he bequeathed the manor of Batch in Herefordshire to Jesus College, Oxford. He married Anne (d. 1597), daughter of William Barlow (d. 1568) [q. v.], bishop of Chichester, and widow of Augustin Bradbridge or Brodbridge, prebendary of Salisbury. By her he had one son—Herbert—and three daughters: Anne, married to William Jeffries; Margaret, married to Richard Edes or Eedes [q. v.], dean of Worcester; and Elizabeth, married to Robert Walwyn of Newland in Worcestershire. William Walwyn [q. v.] was her son.
Westfaling was a man of great gravity of demeanour. Francis Godwin [q. v.] states that during a familiar acquaintance of many years he scarcely saw him laugh (De Præsulibus, 1743, p. 495). His portrait is in the picture-gallery of the Bodleian Library. Some laudatory verses by him were affixed to ‘Joannis Juelli Vita et Mors’ (London, 1573, 4to), by Laurence Humphrey or Humfrey [q. v.], and two short poems in his praise by William Gager are preserved in the library of the British Museum (Add. MS. 22583, ff. 71–2). Westfaling was the author of a manuscript translation entitled ‘A Discourse of Quintus Cicero to his brother Marcus concerning Suete for the Consulship,’ which is preserved in the Bodleian Library. Some Latin verses, ‘In tertiam sepulturam Katherinæ Petri Martyris uxoris carmen,’ affixed to the ‘Historia vera de Vita Obituque … D. Martini Buceri et Pauli Fagii’ of Conradus Hubertus (Strasburg, 1562, 4to), are signed ‘Harbertus West.,’ and are perhaps written by Westfaling. Some poems in Latin and English by him are preserved in the library of Cambridge University (MS. Ff. v. 14).
E. I. C.