LIVES OF THE BISHOPS OF EXETER

JOHN. - He is better known as the Chantor or Precentor of Exeter, an office he had filled for thirty years before his promotion to the episcopacy. At the time of his election to the vacant see, he was also Subdean of Salisbury. Our townsman Baldwin, then Archbishop of Canterbury, performed the office of his consecration on 4th October, 1186. Shortly after his accession he appropriated to his Chapter the Church of Ashburton, as also the Church of Egloscruc (now called St. Issey) in Cornwall, "in manerio nostro de Poltonâ." On 3rd September, 1189, we meet with him as an assisting prelate at the coronation of King Richard I. Several impressions of the bishop's seal are attached to deeds in the Guildhall of this city, confirming the property of Plympton Priory. The mitre is of the crescent form. Dying on 1st June, 1191, he was buried within the south, or St. John's, tower of his Cathedral, where his tomb remains undisturbed, and was formerly covered with a brass, probably with an inscription on it: the wooden coffin has been seen belted with hoops; and formerly it was inclosed within a chantry, called St. Michael's.

ARMS: - Argent a cross sable; a chief of the second.

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