1. Hugh Oldham was a conscientious bishop who ensured that only educated people were appointed to ecclesiastical posts.
12 Facts About Hugh Oldham
1. 2.
Oldham was one of the younger of six sons born to Roger Oldham and his wife Margery who were, the limited evidence suggests, yeomen or minor gentry at Ancoats, which at the time was a village in North West England, but is an inner city area of Manchester.
3.
Hugh Oldham evidently took his duties as bishop seriously and ensured that only educated people, such as university graduates, were raised to most of the important roles under his control.
4.
Hugh Oldham instigated examinations to select the best candidates for ordination.
5.
Hugh Oldham successfully annexed Warland Hospital in Totnes from the Trinitarian Order in 1509.
6.
Hugh Oldham was initially successful in his litigation against Richard Banham, the abbot of Tavistock Abbey, who in 1513 had declared his abbey exempt from the bishop's right of episcopal visitation.
7.
Hugh Oldham quickly excommunicated him, but after Banham's personal appeal that he be "absolved from his censures", Hugh Oldham reinstated him, on payment of five pounds.
8.
Hugh Oldham had a brother, Bernard, who followed a religious career.
9.
Hugh Oldham apparently offered help to Exeter College, Oxford, established in 1314 by one of his predecessors at Exeter, Bishop Stapledon, but in this case there is no evidence to contradict Hooker's statement that his offer was rejected.
10.
Hugh Oldham ensured that the younger members of Exeter's cathedral choir attended the city high school, for instance, but his main endowment in this field was made back in his home country of Lancashire.
11.
Sir John Speke, a wealthy Devon knight, and Bishop Hugh Oldham jointly planned the construction of two new chantry chapels in complementary positions off the north and south choir-aisles of Exeter Cathedral.
12.
Hugh Oldham's tomb is surmounted by a brightly painted, but rather crudely carved effigy, typical of the general decline in the quality of sepulchral monuments of the early 16th century.