caption predecessor successor death_date consecration title buried church elected see image article_title term_end name type
effigy of john droxford in wells cathedral walter haselshaw ralph of shrewsbury 9 may 1329 9 november 1309 bishop of bath and wells wells cathedral catholic 5 february 1309 diocese of bath and wells johndrokensfield.jpg john droxford
 9 may 1329 john droxford bishop
john droxford

john droxford -lrb- sometimes john drokensford ; died 9 may 1329 -rrb- , was a bishop of bath and wells .
he was elected 5 february 1309 and consecrated 9 november 1309 .
droxford , born probably at drokensford , now droxford , hampshire , was controller of the wardrobe to king edward i in 1291 , and continued to hold that office until 1295 , when he appears as keeper of the wardrobe .
these offices kept him in constant attendance at court .
he accompanied edward in the expeditions he made to scotland in 1291 and 1296 .
in 1297 he discharged the duties of treasurer during a vacancy .
the next year he was again busy in scotland , and he appears to have again accompanied edward i on the expedition of 1303 -- 4 .
his services were rewarded with ecclesiastical preferments ; he was rector of droxford , of hemingburgh and stillingfleet in yorkshire , and of balsham in cambridgeshire ; he held prebends in southwell and four other collegiate churches in england , besides certain prebends in ireland ; was installed as prebendary in the cathedral churches of lichfield , lincoln , and wells ; and was chaplain to the pope .
his secular emoluments were also large , for he appears to have had five residences in surrey , hampshire , and kent , besides a sixth estate in chute forest , wiltshire , and a grant of land in windsor forest .
he is sometimes incorrectly styled chancellor , or keeper of the great seal , simply because on one occasion , as keeper of the wardrobe , he had charge of the great seal for a few days during a vacancy .
after the death of edward i droxford ceased to hold office in the wardrobe , and in the first year of king edward ii sat in the exchequer as chancellor .
on 25 december 1308 the king , in sending his `` congé d'élire '' to the cathedral chapters of bath and wells , nominated him for election ; he received the temporalities of the see on 15 may 1309 , and was enthroned at wells about twelve months afterwards .
during the first four years of his episcopate he was seldom in his diocese ; `` political troubles '' he writes , in december 1312 , `` having hindered our residence '' .
in later years , though often in london and elsewhere , and paying an annual visit to his private estates , he was also much in somerset .
he did not make either bath or wells his headquarters , but moved about constantly , attended apparently by a large retinue , from one to another of the manor-houses , sixteen or more in number , attached to the see and used as episcopal residences .
magnificent and liberal , he was , like many of his fellow-bishops , a worldly man , and by no means blameless in the administration of his patronage , for he conferred a prebend on a member of the house of berkeley who was a layman and a mere boy , and in the bountiful provision he made for his relations out of the revenues of his church he was not always careful to act legally .
he had some disputes with his chapter which were settled in 1321 .
although droxford was left regent when the king and queen isabella crossed over to france in 1313 , and was one of the commissioners to open parliament , he found himself `` outrun in the race for secular preferment '' in the reign of edward ii , and probably for this reason was hostile to the king .
he joined in the petition for the appointment of ordainers in march 1310 .
in july 1321 he and others endeavoured to arrange a peace between the king and the malcontent lords at london .
at the same time he was concerned in the rebellion against edward , and in february 1323 the king wrote to pope john xxii and the cardinals complaining of his conduct , and requesting that he should be translated to some see out of the kingdom .
he signed the letter sent by the bishops to the queen in 1325 exhorting her to return to her husband , and on 13 january 1327 took the oath to support her and her son at the guildhall of london .
droxford died at his episcopal manor-house at dogmersfield , hampshire , on 9 may 1329 , and was buried in st katharine 's chapel in his cathedral church , where his tomb is still to be seen .
two months before his death he endowed a chantry to be established at the altar nearest to his grave .
