page_title: John Still
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: John Still / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: A watercolour and gouache (bodycolour) portrait of John Still (c. 1543 – 26 February 1607/8), the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The work was possibly copied from a contemporary portrait, as Harding was known as a copyist of portrait paintings.
context_page_description: John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells, enjoyed considerable fame as an English preacher and disputant. He was formerly reputed to be the author of an early English comedy drama: Gammer Gurton's Needle.
context_section_description: Still was born 1543 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. After finishing school at The King's School, Grantham, he became a student at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA in 1562, a MA in 1565, and a DD doctorate in 1575. In 1561 he became a fellow of his college and took holy orders.
  Still was appointed in 1570 to be Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, and later held livings in Suffolk, where he was Archdeacon of Sudbury from 1576 to 1593, and Yorkshire. He was then Master successively of St John's College (1574) and of Trinity College (1577). Still Vice-Chancellor of his university in 1575/1576 and again in 1592/1593, he was raised to the bishopric of Bath and Wells in 1593. In 1604 he bought the manor of Hutton, Somerset, east of Wells and to the west of the Mendip Hills, with its residence, Hutton Court.
  John Still died on 26 February 1608, leaving a large fortune from lead mines discovered in the Mendips. There is a fine monument to him in the north transept of Wells Cathedral, erected by his son Nathaniel.
caption: Bishop John Still by Silvester Harding, painted 1760–1809, possibly copied from a now lost contemporary portrait (British Museum Gg 1.425)
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