John Spalding (priest)

John Spalding was a 15th-century churchman based at Brechin in Angus, Scotland. Spalding became Dean of Brechin in 1456; he was confirmed in this position by the Pope on 5 October 1458.^[1]

Biography

After the resignation of Robert Lauder as Bishop of Dunblane at the papal curia on 12 September 1466, the Pope provided John Herspolz to that bishopric; King James III of Scotland however, perhaps not aware of the Pope's actions, nominated John Spalding in late 1466 or in 1467; this certainly occurred before 19 November 1467.^[2]

Spalding did not become the bishop however, Herspolz being consecrated in the summer or autumn of 1467.^[3]

While Dean of Brechin, Spalding had a perpetual appointment as vicarage of the parish church of Dune and of the parish church of Kinel. Spalding's yearly revenues did not exceed thirty pounds sterling for each.^[4]

Spalding retained his deanery until 1487, despite being challenged by John Barry from 1477 onwards.^[5] On 17 February 1487, Spalding exchanged the deanery of Brechin for the precentorship of the cathedral with Hugh Douglas; Spalding was said to be 69 years old on this occasion.^[6]

Further reading

• Cockburn, James Hutchison (1959), The Medieval Bishops of Dunblane and their Church, Dunblane: Society of Friends of Dunblane Cathedral 
• Dowden, John (1912), Thomson, John Maitland, ed., The Bishops of Scotland : Being Notes on the Lives of All the Bishops, under Each of the Sees, Prior to the Reformation, Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons 
• Watt, D. E. R.; Murray, A. L., eds. (2003), Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae Medii Aevi ad annum 1638, The Scottish Record Society, New Series, Volume 25 (Revised ed.), Edinburgh: The Scottish Record Society, ISBN 0-902054-19-8, ISSN 0143-9448 

References