FELTON, Nicholas (1562/3-1626)

Felton’s father, John, may have been a younger son of Edmund Felton of Glemsford, Suffolk; as bishop of Ely, Felton appointed his own son Robert as rector of this parish in 1619. John Felton was a merchant of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk; his will suggests he identified with the godly ethos of the town’s elite.23 Vis. Suff. ed. W.C. Metcalfe, 132, 191; Al. Cant. (Robert Felton); CCEd; PROB 11/100, f. 96. Felton himself was educated at Queens’ and ‘little Pembroke Hall’, Cambridge, which he later remembered as a nursery of talent. Both colleges permitted a range of theological opinions, but the future bishop remained an orthodox Calvinist, although clearly one able to tolerate different opinions.24 CUL, Dd.v.31, f. 186v; F.W. Brownlow, Shakespeare, Harsnett and the Devils of Denham, 39-43; Attwater, 50-6. His appointment in the early 1590s as curate and then rector of St Antholin’s, London took place shortly after his marriage to the widow of Robert Norgate, late master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His patrons at St Antholin’s were the dean and chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral. However, it was John Whitgift^†, archbishop of Canterbury, who appointed him rector of St Mary-le-Bow in 1596.

Felton enjoyed a considerable reputation as a preacher, although none of his sermons was printed.25 Fuller, xi. 134; E. Willis, An Abreviation of Writing by Character (1618), sig. A1, where he is misidentified as bp. of Coventry and Lichfield. Notes on his sermons survive in Univ. London, Carleton mss box 17/8 and CUL, Dd.v.31, ff. 186-7. St Antholin’s was famous for its morning lectures, delivered by some of the capital’s leading puritan preachers, and while he had no direct control over these, Felton clearly supported them, as the collections taken among his parishioners kept the exercises from making a loss. One of his curates, Meredith Mady, was more forthright than Felton in his puritan sympathies: he was deprived of the rectory of Blagdon, Somerset in 1617, and his preaching licence was suspended in 1630 by William Laud^*, bishop of London (later archbishop of Canterbury), for delivering a sermon on predestination, in contravention of the royal directions of 1622.26 CCEd; St Antholin, 35; P. Seaver, Puritan Lectureships, 163-5, 199, 233, 362; Fincham, 51, 56. Felton did not take a public stance against Arminianism, but when, in around 1615, Richard Neile^*, bishop of Lincoln (later archbishop of York), required Dr Thomas Beard of Huntingdon to preach a repetition sermon rehearsing the views of Dr William Alabaster, a recent convert from Catholicism, Beard consulted Felton about his misgivings, who ‘charged him [Beard] as a minister to oppose it, which Dr Beard did’. Oliver Cromwell^‡ reported this incident to the Commons in 1629 as evidence of Neile’s Arminianism.27 CD 1629, pp. 139, 192-3.

At Lent 1607 Felton preached his first known sermon at court. Later the same year King James nominated him and another man for the mastership of Gonville and Caius, which college, like Pembroke Hall, had a history of doctrinal heterodoxy; the fellows ignored the royal nominations, choosing the anti-Calvinist John Gostlin instead.28 P.E. McCullough, Sermons at Ct. (suppl. cal. 138); C. Brooke, Hist. Gonville and Caius Coll. 106-7. Five years later, Felton heard that Samuel Harsnett^* (a future archbishop of York) was considering resigning as master of Pembroke, having been appointed bishop of Chichester, whereupon he notified the bishop of Ely, Lancelot Andrewes^* (later bishop of Winchester and Harsnett’s predecessor as master). Andrewes reminded the king’s secretary, Sir Thomas Lake^‡, that James had promised Felton ‘some preferment’, and urged his nomination over the head of the internal candidate, Thomas Muriell. In the end, Harsnett retained his post, but mollified Felton by procuring a fellowship for his son Robert after the latter proceeded BA in 1613.29 SP14/70/15; Attwell, 60-1; Al. Cant. (Robert Felton).

In 1614 Felton, clearly regarded as reliable pastor, was appointed to minister to the troubled Arbella Stuart, then a prisoner in the Tower. His stock at court rose further in the following year, when he was said to have performed well as confessor to the disgraced lieutenant of the Tower, Sir Gervase Elwes, persuading the latter to express contrition before his execution for connivance in the murder of his prisoner, Sir Thomas Overbury^‡.30 APC, 1613-14, p.549; T. Birch, Ct. and Times Jas. I, i. 378. Felton was appointed a canon of St Paul’s Cathedral in March 1616, at the behest of the bishop of London, John King^*, another Calvinist theologian. A few months later, when quarrels over the misuse of college funds and allegations of partiality led Bishop Harsnett to step down as master at Pembroke Hall, Felton was elected his successor.31 Fasti, i. 27; Pembroke Coll. Archives, Camb., Coll. Box M4; Attwell, 61-5; Brownlow, 137-40; SAMUEL HARSNETT. He was clearly seen as a peacemaker within the college: one of his first reforms was the inauguration of an act book to record the decisions reached by the governing body, arguments about which had poisoned Harsnett’s tenure; while he tried to rebuild relations with Harsnett’s unpopular deputy, John Pocklington.32 Pembroke College Archives, Camb., Act Book B/β/2, p.1; Arundel Castle, autograph letters 1585-1617, no. 221.

In the autumn of 1616, the wife of Thomas Knyvett^*, Lord Knyvett, presented Felton to the rectory of Great Easton, Essex. His own sights were set higher, however, and in February 1617, when Anthony Maxey, dean of Windsor, declined the bishopric of Bristol, Felton was chosen instead. His installation was delayed over the summer, during which time he was a contender for the wealthier see of Lincoln, vacated by Neile’s translation to Durham. However, George Montaigne^* secured that appointment, with the result that Felton was finally consecrated bishop of Bristol in December 1617.33 CCEd; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 51, 82, 121; Fasti, viii. 10. He resigned his London livings, but as Bristol was worth only £340 a year, he was allowed to keep the mastership of Pembroke, Great Easton rectory and his cathedral canonry, and was granted Mady’s former living in Somerset, perhaps to assist in the payment of his first fruits.34 CCEd; C58/21; Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent., U269/1/CP127; Trans. Congregational Hist. Soc. vi. 56; Fincham, 51, 56. Felton was evidently promised that Bristol would be the stepping stone to further promotion, as, when Robert Abbot^* died in March 1618, he was touted as a contender for the diocese of Salisbury. Martin Fotherby^* – his predecessor as rector of St Mary-le-Bow – was chosen instead, but six months later Felton succeeded Andrewes as bishop of Ely when the latter moved to Winchester. Ely was worth almost £2,000 a year,35 Chamberlain Letters, ii. 147; Fasti, vii. 7; Trans. Congregational Hist. Soc. vi. 56. and to secure such a lucrative preferment at this time Felton must have come to some agreement with the favourite, George Villiers^*, marquess (later 1st duke) of Buckingham.

Felton made his parliamentary debut in 1621. An active member of the Lords, he was appointed to the largely honorific post of trier of petitions at the start of the session, and attended the House on three-quarters of the days it sat. Early in the proceedings, he was one of those named to help scrutinize bills to ban the export of ordnance and to promote the modernization of militia arms, the only significant preparations for war considered by the House that spring. He was ordered to attend two conferences with the Commons about a petition for enforcement of the recusancy laws, and another on the apprehension of the patentee Sir Giles Mompesson^‡, who had fled to France; he was one of those who investigated the fugitive’s patent for concealed lands.36 LJ, iii. 7a, 13a, 17a, 18b, 47a, 70b After the Easter recess, he was nominated to committees for the recusancy bill, the monopolies bill – intended to prevent abuses such as those practiced by Mompesson – and the bill for limitation of legal actions.37 Ibid. 101a, 137a, 149b.

In July 1621, George Abbot^*, archbishop of Canterbury, accidentally killed a gamekeeper while hunting. As John Williams^*, newly appointed lord keeper and bishop of Lincoln (and later archbishop of York), declined to accept consecration from a prelate with blood on his hands, Felton and five other bishops were deputed to act in Abbot’s stead, performing this and three other consecrations in November 1621, shortly before Parliament reconvened.38 Chamberlain Letters, ii. 406; J. Hacket, Scrinia Reserata (1693), i. 68. Felton made his first recorded speech following the third reading of the monopolies’ bill on 1 December. When Thomas Howard^*, 21st (or 14th) earl of Arundel, and Bishop Harsnett insisted that the bill would circumscribe the royal prerogative by banning future grants of monopolies to individuals, Felton supported William Fiennes^*, 8th Lord Saye and Sele, who dismissed these fears; his intervention was unsuccessful, as the bill was rejected.39 LJ, iii. 177b; LD 1621, pp. 102-5. Felton was named to several committees, for bills to allow the subject to retain possession of crown lands during concealment proceedings; to make the estates of those attainted liable for their private debts; and to confirm the privileges of the merchants of the Staple.40 LJ, iii. 181a, 182b, 184a. On 11 Dec., when the Lords dismissed Sir John Bourchier’s^‡ claim that Lord Keeper Williams had rushed to give judgement in a Chancery lawsuit, Felton reminded the House that Bourchier had also impugned the Chancery registrar.41 LD 1621, pp. 115-16.

As a bishop, Felton lived mainly in London – possibly in St Antholin’s parish, as Ely House served as the Spanish embassy for much of his tenure. He rarely visited Ely diocese, and did not attend any of his three visitations in person, but he did take some interest in diocesan affairs.42 Fincham, 311, 320-1; Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent., U269/1/OE244 (10 Apr. 1622, Felton to Cranfield). He defended the episcopal manor of Walbersey, Cambridgeshire against encroachments by neighbouring landowners, and his diocese raised £580 towards the Palatine benevolence of 1622-3, almost as much as the yield of a clerical subsidy (£625) and a larger return than most dioceses.43 C2/Jas.I/E1/76; 2/Jas.I/E2/53; SP14/133/13. He also tried to persuade Jesus College, Cambridge, of which he was visitor, to use some of the profits from its rental income to endow a new scholarship; arbitrated a dispute at St John’s College, Cambridge about a fellow who was sent to France on a diplomatic mission; and offered funding towards a polemical initiative sponsored by the Irish prelate James Ussher.44 Add. 4274, ff. 156-7; The Eagle, xix. 141-3; J. Ussher, Works, xv. 262-3. He used his patronage as bishop of Ely to secure livings for his sons (both clerics) at Glemsford, Suffolk, Little Gransden and Streatham, Cambridgeshire, but failed to secure the lectureship of Holy Trinity, Cambridge for Paul Micklethwaite of Sidney Sussex College, in face of the townsmen’s determination to appoint John Preston, master of Emmanuel College.45 CCEd; Al. Cant. (Nicholas and Robert Felton); SP14/170/58; C.H. Cooper, Annals of Camb. iii.168. In February 1623, when Lord Keeper Williams delayed the passage of a proclamation announcing a five-man committee to handle grievance petitions, he recommended ten additional members for the committee, including Felton. However, the proclamation was issued unchanged.46 Stuart Royal Proclamations I: Jas. I ed. J.F. Larkin and P.L. Hughes, i. 568-70; Hacket, i. 109.

Felton attended almost every day of the 1624 Parliament, but took little part in its proceedings, perhaps because of ill health, which kept him away from the House on a handful of occasions.47 LJ, iii. 218b, 248a; PA, HL/JO/PO/5/1/2, f. 15. At the start of the session, he was again appointed a trier of petitions, and doubtless attended Buckingham’s relation of the breakdown of negotiations for an Anglo-Spanish Match, as he was ordered to attend a conference with the Commons to clear Buckingham (now a duke) from the charge of slandering the king of Spain.48 LJ, iii. 208a, 238a. He was named to committees for nine bills on a range of subjects, including informers, purveyance and cart-taking, the upgrading of militia arms and concealed lands; but on 18 Mar. his name was deleted from the committee list for the monopolies bill, presumably because the quota of bishops was already filled.49 Ibid. 252b, 288b, 293a, 304a; PA, HL/PO/JO/5/1/2, f. 42v. He remained in the House until the end of the session, but left no trace on its records after 15 April. The same pattern recurred during the 1625 Parliament: Felton was again nominated as a trier of petitions by the crown, and attended almost every day, at both Westminster and Oxford, but he featured little in its proceedings, aside from being named to two conferences about the petition for a national fast, and committees on the Sabbath bill, the recusancy bill and the bill to strike down a patent for fishing off the coast of North America.50 Procs. 1625, pp. 31, 49, 72, 78, 174, 179.

At the start of the 1626 Parliament, Felton was again named as a trier of petitions, but his health was clearly failing: he missed one-third of the sittings, and played little part in the impeachments which dominated the session, although he was a member of the committee deputed to take the depositions of witnesses for the charges against John Digby^*, 1st earl of Bristol, and was later said to have opposed the motion to allow Attorney-General Sir Robert Heath^‡ to serve as counsel for Buckingham.51 Procs. 1626, i. 22, 540; Hacket, ii. 70-1. His committee appointments were also few. Their subjects included the defence of the kingdom, and bills on saltpetre, recusancy and free fishing off the American coast – the latter two measures both revived from the 1625 session. They also included a bill to bar parish clergy from serving as magistrates, which Felton presumably opposed, as the bench for the Isle of Ely included half a dozen clerics.52 Procs. 1626, i. 110, 127-8, 319, 327; C181/3, ff. 82v, 126.

Felton died in London early on the morning of 5 Oct. 1626, and was buried under the communion table at St Antholin’s the following day.53 T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, i. 155; St Antholin’s, 61; Fuller, xi. 134. He left an estate of £3,784. In his will of July 1625, he gave £200 to his eldest surviving son, Nicholas, and £400 to the younger, Robert, because the former had received a richer benefice and loans of cash and stock in his lifetime. He also left bequests to his late wife’s children and grandchildren, his servants, and his poor relations in Great Yarmouth. His sons, who were jointly appointed executors, fell out over the division of his estate.54 PROB 11/150, ff. 199v-201; C2/Chas.I/F20/6; 2/Chas.I/F23/37.