SAPCOTE, John (d.1574), of Therfield, Herts. and of Lincs.

Sapcote was a member of the household of Nicholas Heath, archbishop of York, who nominated him at Ripon. He came of a family closely connected with the church, his father (twice mayor of Lincoln) having been registrar general of Lincoln cathedral, where John’s uncle William was a canon. Both Henry Sapcote and his wife were buried there. Sapcote himself may have been in minor orders, and when Heath had been deprived early in Elizabeth’s reign, he could have expected no further employment. Instead of living on his property in and around Lincoln, he seems to have retired to the south of England. The preamble to his will, made 29 Apr. 1574, is Catholic: he commended his soul to the Trinity and to Mary, Mother of God. Most of the will is in Latin, but the last section, which includes a list of small debts, is in English. Evidently a punctilious man, he asked his executors, Thomas Turner and Richard Proctor, to pay his grocer for spice and his tailor 8s.owing to him. The executors were to receive annual payments, Turner of £4 and Proctor of £6, for 10 years after Sapcote’s death. His widow was to distribute £10 to the poor. The will in general is that of a man in only moderate circumstances. For some reason it was not admitted to probate, and letters of administration were granted in December 1574 to the widow. A new grant was made in June 1588, after her death, to one William Dalton of St. Andrew, Holborn.1Vis. Herts. (Harl. Soc. xx), 162; Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. lii), 853; Lansd. 109, ff. 204-5; CPR, 1558-60, p. 172; PCC 46 Martyn; PCC admon. act. bk. 1588, f. 66.