# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newark, Henry de

​NEWARK or NEWERK, HENRY de (d. 1299), archbishop of York, was probably a native of Newark, Nottinghamshire, and a kinsman of William de Newark, archdeacon of Huntingdon and canon of Lincoln and Southwell, who died in 1286 (Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 49; Fasti Eboracenses, p. 349). His own chaplain, another William de Newark, who succeeded him in his prebend at Southwell, and held it from 1298 to 1340 (Le Neve, iii. 428), was also doubtless related to him. Newark was one of the clerks of Edward I. For a few months in 1270 he held the living of Barnby, Nottinghamshire (Fasti Ebor. p. 351), and in 1271 received a prebend in St. Paul's, London (Le Neve, ii. 365). Edward employed him at the Roman court in ​1276 and 1277 (Fœdera, i. 537, 543), and, on the death of Archbishop Giffard, in 1279, appointed him one of the joint guardians of the temporalities of the see of York (Prynne, Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, iii. 224). In 1281 he was appointed archdeacon of Richmond, and held that office until 1290. He also received a prebend at York, which he exchanged for another in 1283 (Le Neve, iii. 137, 214). He was in 1281 a commissioner to settle certain disputes with the subjects of the Count of Holland (Fœdera, i. 597), and in 1283 was appointed to arrange the services due to the king from knights and others north of the Trent (ib. p. 625), and to collect, with another, the subsidy for the Welsh war in the bishopric of Durham (Prynne, u.s. iii. 303). In 1287 he was collated prebendary of Southwell, and the following year was vicar-general for Archbishop Romanus, to whom he had lent money (Fasti Ebor. p. 351), and for whom, in 1293, he became surety for the payment of a fine. He was elected dean of York, and installed in June 1290 (Le Neve, iii. 122), holding his prebend in the church along with the deanery. At the same date he was appointed a joint commissioner to treat with the Scots (Fœdera, i. 734, 736), and in June 1291 was present at Norham when Edward held the process between the claimants of the crown of Scotland (ib. p. 767), and was also with the king at Berwick. In 1293 he appears as holding a prebend of Wells (Prynne, u.s. iii. 577), and he must also have held the living of Basingham, Lincolnshire, for he vacated it in 1296 (Fasti Ebor. p. 351). In January 1296 he was appointed joint commissioner to treat with the Counts of Guelders and Holland (Fœdera, i. 835). He was elected archbishop of York on 7 May (Le Neve, iii. 104), and the king wrote to Pope Boniface VIII recommending him and asking that the election might be confirmed (Prynne, u.s. iii. 675). The archbishop-elect also sent messengers to the pope asking that he might be excused appearing before him on account of the war. His election was confirmed, and he received the temporalities in 1297, and having again sent to the pope for a dispensation and for the pall, which was sent to him, he was consecrated at York by Antony Bek (d. 1310) [q. v.], bishop of Durham, and others on 15 June 1298 (Walter of Hemingburgh, ii. 71; Knighton, c. 2507). Meanwhile, in 1297, as elect of York, he held a synod of his clergy to discuss the king's demand for a subsidy, and, finding the king determined, made peace by offering him a fifth (Walter of Hemingburgh, ii. 118; Annals of Dunstable, ap. Annales Monastici, iii. 405, 406). He was in that year summoned to Parliament and was a member of the council of the Prince of Wales (Parliamentary Writs, i. 55, 61, 78). As archbishop he bought a piece of land at Kingston-upon-Hull, built houses upon it, and gave the rents for the endowment of chaplains at his manors of Cawood, Burton, and Wilton, and of a priest to say mass at the altar of St. William, the archbishop, in York minster. He died on 15 Aug. 1299, and was buried in his cathedral church (Trivet, p. 377; T. Stubbs, ap. Historians of York, ii. 410). During his short archiepiscopate the old quarrel between the Archbishops of York and the Bishops of Durham was not continued, for he was a friend of Bishop Antony Bek.
W. H.