BLACKBURNE, LANCELOT, son of Richard Blackburne, London; b. 10 Dec 1658; adm.; KS 1671; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1676, matr. 20 Oct 1676, Westminster Student 24 Dec 1676-85 (void); BA 1680; MA (in his absence) 28 Jan 1683/4; ordained 1681; went to Antigua, West Indies, soon after his ordination; a protegé of Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bart. (q. v. ), Bishop of Exeter; Prebendary of Exeter 15 Jun 1691, Sub-Dean 1695-1702, 1704-5; Rector of Calstock, Cornwall, 29 May 1696 (dispensation to hold with Bishopric of Exeter 1716/7); Vicar of Altarnun, Cornwall, 1699 (dispensation to hold with Calstock, 1699); Dean of Exeter 3 Nov 1705 - Feb 1716/7; Archdeacon of Cornwall 24 Jan 1714/5 - Feb 1716/7 (but dispensation to hold with Bishopric of Exeter, 1716/7 ?); Chaplain in Ordinary to George I (Chamberlayne 1716); DD Lambeth 28 Jan 1716; consecrated Bishop of Exeter 24 Feb 1716/7; Lord Almoner from 26 Oct 1723; Archbishop of York from 8 Nov 1724; Privy Councillor 10 Dec 1724; Busby Trustee from 18 Feb 1725/6; a gay and witty divine of remarkably free manners, which gave rise to many scandalous stories; was described by Horace Walpole as “the jolly old Archbishop of York who had all the manners of a man of quality, though he had been a buccaneer, and was a clergyman; but he retained nothing of his first profession, except his seraglio” (Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George II, 1847, i, 87); m. 2 Sep 1684 Catherine, widow of Walter Littleton, Lichfield, Staffs., and dau. of William Talbot, Stourton Castle, Staffs.; d. 23 Mar 1742/3. DNB.
DOLBEN, JOHN, eldest son of William Dolben (elected Oxford 1603, qv); b. 24 Mar 1624/5; adm.; KS 1637; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1640, matr. 3 Jul 1640, Westminster Student 1640 - 7 Jul 1648, when deprived for refusing to submit to the Parliamentary Visitors; BA and MA 9 Dec 1647; BD and DD 3 Oct 1660; joined royalist army as volunteer, wounded at Marston Moor and again during siege of York; promoted for his bravery to the ranks of Capt. and Major; returned to studies at Oxford 1646; ordained deacon (Chichester) 1656; with John Fell and Richard Allestree continued to hold the services of the prescribed Church of England in the house of Dr Thomas Willis in Oxford, an act of loyalty commemorated by Sir Peter Lely in his picture of the three divines in Christ Church Hall; Canon of Christ Church, Oxford 27 Jul 1660- Nov 1666; Rector of Newington cum Britwell, Oxfordshire 1660; Chaplain in Ordinary to Charles II; Prebendary of St. Paul’s 21 Apr 1661 – Nov 1666; Archdeacon of London 11 Oct 1662- May 1664; Vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, 15 Nov 1662 - res 18 Mar 1663/4; Dean of Westminster 3 Dec 1662 - Aug 1683; he and the Westminster Scholars assisted in saving St. Dunstan in the East from the Great Fire 3 Sep 1666 (Autobiography of William Taswell, Camden Soc. Pub. lv, 12); Clerk of the Closet 1664 - Dec 1667, deprived on Clarendon’s fall; consecrated Bishop of Rochester 25 Nov 1666; Lord High Almoner 21 Oct 1675 - Mar 1684; Archbishop of York from 16 Aug 1683; FRS 29 Mar 1665; a prelate of great presence and courage, and one of the most popular preachers of the day; the subject of lines 868-9 of John Dryden (qv)’s Absalom and Achitophel; m. 14 Jan 1657/8 Catherine, dau. of Ralph Sheldon, Stanton, Derbs. [check], and niece of Most Rev. Gilbert Sheldon DD, Archbishop of Canterbury; d. 11 Apr 1686. DNB.
MARKHAM, WILLIAM, eldest son of Maj. William Markham, Barrack-Master of Kinsale, co. Cork, and Elizabeth, dau. of George Markham, Worksop, Notts.; bapt. 9 Apr 1719; adm. (aged 14) 21 Jun 1733; KS (Capt. ) 1734; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1738, matr. 6 Jun 1738, Westminster Student 23 Dec 1738 – void by marriage 18 Jun 1759, Tutor 1742-52, Junior Censor 1751; BA 1742; MA 1745; BCL and DCL 1752; adm. Gray’s Inn 29 Jan 1742/3; ordained priest (Oxford) 17 Dec 1748; Head Master of the School Feb 1753 – Mar 1764; Chaplain in Ordinary to George II 1756 (still 1760); Prebendary of Durham 22 Jun 1759 – Feb 1771; Dean of Rochester 20 Feb 1765 – Oct 1767; Vicar of Boxley, Kent 1765-71; Dean of Christ Church, Oxford 23 Oct 1767 – Jan 1777; consecrated Bishop of Chester 17 Feb 1771; Preceptor to Prince of Wales and Prince Frederick 12 Apr 1771 – 28 May 1776; Archbishop of York from 20 Jan 1777; Lord High Almoner from 21 Jan 1777; Privy Councillor 31 Jan 1777; attacked in House of Lords by Duke of Grafton and Earl of Shelburne 30 May 1777, for having preached doctrines subversive of the Constitution in a sermon at St. Mary-le-Bow Feb 1777; Markham’s “pernicious” doctrines were also attacked by Earl of Chatham; had a narrow escape at his house in Bloomsbury Square during Gordon Riots; at one time an intimate friend of Edmund Burke, whose Philiosophical Enquiry, 1756, he corrected for the press, and afterwards revised; a staunch friend and supporter of Warren Hastings (qv); “our great glory”, wrote Jeremy Bentham (qv), “was Dr. Markham : he was a tall portly man and “high he held his head” … We stood prodigiously in awe of him; indeed he was an object of adoration” (Bentham, Works, 1843, x, 30); during his Head mastership the old Granary in Dean’s Yard was removed and the houses on the Terrace probably built; donor of the scenes for the Latin Play, designed by James Stuart and in use from 1758 to 1808; Busby Trustee 18 Mar 1756; m. 16 Jun 1759 Sarah, dau. of John Goddard, Rotterdam, merchant; d. 3 Nov 1807. Buried North Cloister, Westminster Abbey. DNB.