Sancroft, William

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Sancroft, William (1617–93). Archbishop of Canterbury. Sancroft was a graduate and fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1637), but during the Interregnum moved to Suffolk (1651) and then to Europe (1657). He became master of Emmanuel (1662), dean of York, then of St Paul's (December 1664), where he worked closely with Wren on the new cathedral, consequently refusing the bishopric of Chester (1668). As archbishop (1678), he hoped to refurbish clerical learning and Anglican discipline, especially through the church courts. He crowned James II (1685), but refused to sit on his Court of Ecclesiastical Commission. Leader of the seven bishops petitioning the king against the Declaration of Indulgence (1688), he was committed to the Tower, tried, but acquitted. After James's departure, Sancroft refused to swear allegiance to William, was deprived of his see (1690), and, as the leading non-juror, lived in Suffolk until his death.

Revd Dr William M. Marshall

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William Sancroft

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William Sancroft