1. Gilbert Sheldon was an English religious leader who served as the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1663 until his death.
18 Facts About Gilbert Sheldon
1. 2.
Gilbert Sheldon had already made the acquaintance of William Laud, and corresponded with him on college business, university politics, and on the conversion of William Chillingworth from Roman Catholicism.
3.
Gilbert Sheldon gravitated towards the Great Tew circle of Lucius Cary, and was on friendly terms with Edward Hyde; he had no Puritan sympathies.
4.
Gilbert Sheldon became a royal chaplain through Coventry, and the king intended preferment for him, plans interrupted by the political crises.
5.
Gilbert Sheldon was intimate with the Royalist leaders, and participated in the negotiations for the Uxbridge treaty of 1645.
6.
Gilbert Sheldon was freed, with restrictions on his movements, later that year.
7.
Gilbert Sheldon lived quietly for a dozen years in the Midlands, at Snelston in Derbyshire or with friends in Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire and Glamorgan, where he stayed with Sir John Aubrey.
8.
Gilbert Sheldon was active in fundraising for the poor clergy and for Charles II in exile.
9.
Gilbert Sheldon corresponded with Jeremy Taylor, whom he supported, and with Hyde.
10.
Gilbert Sheldon was commissioned to consecrate the new Scottish bishops.
11.
Gilbert Sheldon hardly participated but was understood to be pulling strings in terms of the outcome.
12.
Gilbert Sheldon was greatly interested in the welfare of the University of Oxford, of which he became Chancellor in 1667, succeeding Lord Clarendon, as Hyde now was.
13.
Gilbert Sheldon was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1665.
14.
Gilbert Sheldon accepted much purely secular work, acting as arbiter on petitions presented through him, and taking up investigations passed on by the king, especially in connection with the navy.
15.
Gilbert Sheldon lost political influence after the fall of Clarendon in 1667, and by making Charles's philandering a matter of religious reproach.
16.
Gilbert Sheldon was vocal against the Royal Declaration of Indulgence of 1672.
17.
Gilbert Sheldon is depicted in a window in Gray's Inn Chapel.
18.
Gilbert Sheldon was buried in Croydon Parish Church, now renamed Croydon Minster.