HANMER, John (1576-1629)

The Hanmers of Pentrepant claimed descent from the twelfth century bard Elidir Sais. They took their English surname from the bishop’s great-grandmother, a Hanmer of Hanmer, Flintshire, which made Sir John Hanmer^‡, 1st bt., the bishop’s fourth cousin once removed.22 DWB (Elidir Sais); Vis. Salop, 208-9; Griffith, 286. Hanmer’s father and his uncle Meredith had been pupils at Shrewsbury School in 1563, so it is likely that the future bishop was the John Hanmer who attended the school in 1585. It was certainly Hanmer who, following in the footsteps of Meredith Hanmer, a cleric who ended his career as a canon of Christ Church, Dublin, was sent to Oxford in 1592. Elected to a fellowship at All Souls in 1595, he was presented by the crown to the rectory of Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire shortly before proceeding BA in 1605. If he intended to leave Oxford, however, he subsequently changed his mind, as he was selected to serve as junior proctor for the university, whereupon he resigned his benefice.23 Calvert, 2, 99-100; Oxford DNB, xxv. 63-4; CCEd.

Once his term as junior proctor had ended, Hanmer secured another living, at Hutton in Somerset, in March 1608, which he held for the next seven years. It was probably not a coincidence that he was instituted by the visitor of All Souls, Richard Bancroft^*, archbishop of Canterbury, while the bishopric of Bath and Wells lay vacant. The college statutes required a fellow holding a cure of souls to resign on the grounds of non-residency, but Hanmer was still in post a year later, serving as one of the college’s two bursars, when Bancroft nominated Edward Cotton, son of William Cotton^*, bishop of Exeter, for the next vacant fellowship. In August 1609, Bancroft complained about irregularities in Hanmer’s bursarial accounts relating to a visit to the college’s properties in Carmarthenshire. The sum unaccounted for was a trivial matter of £23 2s. 5d., but Bancroft insisted that ‘perfidiousness of this nature can incur no less punishment than expulsion, in my opinion’. Hanmer took the hint and offered to resign, on condition that the vacancy thereby created would be filled by a fellow Welshman. Bancroft grudgingly agreed to this demand, and consequently Hanmer’s fellowship was bestowed on Morgan Wynn of Melai, Denbighshire, while Cotton was subsequently found a vacancy at Exeter College.24 CCEd; Oxf., All Souls’ Coll., Autograph Letters I/92, 96, 101, 105; W.P. Griffith, Learning, Law and Religion, 232; Al. Ox. (Edward Cotton).

Hanmer could probably afford to resign because he was now chaplain to the courtier Philip Herbert^*, earl of Montgomery (later 4th earl of Pembroke), at whose entreaty Bancroft had agreed to allow the All Souls’ fellowship to go to another Welshman. Over the next few years Hanmer probably spent much of his time within the earl’s household: it was as a chaplain that he got into in trouble in 1613 for conducting a clandestine marriage between a Shropshire man and a London widow, and three years later it was Montgomery, newly appointed high steward of Oxford University, who asked that Hanmer be awarded his doctorate in London, where he then lay sick.25 Oxf., All Souls Coll., Autograph Letters I/101; CCEd; Bodl., Oxf. Univ. Archives, NEP/supra/Reg.N, f.26.

In January 1614 Hanmer was installed as a prebend at Worcester Cathedral, under a reversion he had been granted by the crown a decade earlier – the inordinate delay was caused by the intrusion of two candidates into vacancies ahead of the existing reversionaries. In the following year Hanmer swapped his Somerset living for a Nottinghamshire rectory, and was appointed a royal chaplain – presumably at Montgomery’s recommendation – securing a preaching licence from Oxford University.26 Fasti, vii. 117, 121, 127; E331/Yorks/12-13; Bodl., Oxf. Univ. Archives, NEP/supra/Reg.K, f. 156v. At Worcester, Hanmer formed links with the diocesan registrar, William Warmstry, whose younger brother, Thomas, was a fellow of All Souls from 1607.27 Oxf., All Souls Coll., Acta, ff. 23v-4; Bodl., Oxf. Univ. Archives, SP/E/6/1; PROB 11/105, f. 237; 11/127, f. 253v. It is likely that Mary Kempe, who married Hanmer in October 1620, was related to the Warmstry family, as William Warmstry acted as trustee for her marriage settlement. Hanmer’s decision to marry was probably influenced by his inheritance of the family’s 800 acre estate in Shropshire upon the death of his elder brother. These lands were admittedly settled on his mother for life, but she died in January 1621.28 C142/528/87; Selattyn, 79, 81.

Hanmer’s elevation to the bishopric of St Asaph, which took place in the winter of 1623-4, was a surprising preferment for a man who had never held a deanery or an archdeaconry. However, it was related to the manoeuvrings at court which led to the overthrow of the Spanish Match. Contemporary and later evidence suggests that the lord keeper, John Williams^*, bishop of Lincoln (later archbishop of York), had intended the see for his client Dr Theodore Price, a native of the diocese, but that Prince Charles (Stuart^*) had intervened, claiming the right, as prince of Wales, to nominate one of his own chaplains. It is not known whether Hanmer was, in fact, one of the prince’s chaplains, but he, like Price, was a native of St Asaph diocese, and thus familiar with the see. Furthermore, as his patron, Montgomery, and the latter’s brother William Herbert^*, 3rd earl of Pembroke, were then being wooed by Charles and Buckingham to join the ‘patriot’ cause against the Spanish Match, his appointment may have been an acceptable compromise for all concerned. Shortly after his appointment, he agreed to find sinecures within his diocese for no less than six candidates nominated by the Herberts.29 The Eagle, xvii. 147; J. Hacket, Scrinia Reserata, i. 207; HEHL, HA5490; T. Cogswell, Blessed Rev. 124, 129-32, 154-6; NLW, 9059E/1160. Valued at £169 a year, St Asaph was one of the poorest bishoprics, and while Hanmer retained his prebendal stall at Worcester and was appointed to the archdeaconry of St Asaph in commendam, it was not a lucrative appointment, particularly as he surrendered his Nottinghamshire living to Dr Matthew Wren^† (later bishop of Ely).30 CSP Dom. 1623-5, pp. 132, 158; C66/2309/12; C58/27; E331/Yorks/13; Trans. Congregational Hist. Soc. vi. 56.

With Parliament about to meet, Hanmer hurried to St Asaph in January 1624 for his election as archdeacon, but while he was consecrated as bishop on 15 Feb., and first took his seat in the Lords on 23 Feb., it was noted that he ‘had not his temporalities’, and he did not participate in the business of the House until after he took the oath of allegiance on 1 March. Thereafter, he attended a little over half the Lords’ sittings in 1624. He even attended on 28 Feb., the day before he preached in the Chapel Royal; however, there is no record that he ever spoke in debate.31 P. Roberts, Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd ed. D.R. Thomas, 99; Le Neve, Fasti, i. 75-6; LJ, iii. 214b, 238b; P.E. McCullough, Sermons at Ct. (suppl. cal. 280). On 2 Mar. he was one of a delegation ordered to help confer with the Commons in order to draft a list of reasons to persuade James to break off his negotiations for a Spanish Match. He was also named to the committee for the bill to confirm Prince Charles’s acquisition of the manor of Kenilworth, in Warwickshire, and to another for repealing a clause in the 1543 Act of Union which allowed the crown to make statute law for Wales by proclamation.32 LJ, iii. 242b, 254b, 273a, 304b, 314b. All of these measures were either promoted or supported by the prince, which suggests that Hanmer felt some degree of obligation towards Charles for his advancement. Hanmer was also named to the committee for the Welsh cottons bill, a measure of considerable importance to the weavers of his diocese, and ordered to attend a conference with the Commons about the charges brought against Samuel Harsnett^*, bishop of Norwich (later archbishop of York).33 Ibid. 303b, 384b. The Lords’ draft Journal also records that he was named to committees for the estate bill for Henry de Vere^*, 18th earl of Oxford – Montgomery’s wife was a de Vere – and for the usury bill, but he did not make the final committee list for either.34 PA, HL/PO/JO/5/1/2, f. 31; HL/PO/JO/5/1/3, f. 37; LJ, iii. 253b, 325a.

In June 1624, immediately after the prorogation, Hanmer went back to St Asaph to conduct his first episcopal visitation. In the absence of diocesan records, little can be said about his pastoral role. With the encouragement from the bards, he appreciated the need to encourage preaching and teaching in Welsh, encouraging Robert Lloyd to translate Arthur Dent’s Plain Man’s Pathway to Heaven, a puritan classic, into Welsh.35 R. Lloyd, Llwybr hyffordd yn cyfarwyddo (London, 1682), preface; Oxford DNB, xxv. 61. He resided in his diocese, on his own Shropshire estates, where two of his wife’s family were buried, rather than at St Asaph. In March 1625, two weeks before James’s death, he preached at the Chapel Royal, but none of his sermons were ever printed. Licensed to be absent from the parliamentary session which began in June 1625, he continued to play an active role in his diocese, organising the confiscation of arms from the Catholic gentry in January 1626.36 Roberts, 101-2; Selattyn, 89, 97; LC5/183, f. 2; Procs. 1625, p. 45; NLW, 9061E/1388.

Shortly after his arrival at St Asaph, Hanmer was appointed one of the guardians of the estates of Sir Thomas Hanmer^‡, 2nd bt. He therefore presumably instructed his episcopal tenants to turn out for his relative at the Flintshire election of January 1626, when the 13-year-old baronet was roundly defeated by John Salusbury^‡ of Bachegraig.37 PROB 11/145, ff. 240v-1; HP Commons 1604-29, ii. 568-9. Hanmer arrived in the Lords on 13 Feb. 1626, taking the oath of allegiance two days later, and was present almost every day until 15 Mar., although during this time he was named to only one committee, for an estate bill for Charles Howard^*, 2nd earl of Nottingham. On 17 Mar. he was excused attendance, but he did not nominate a proxy, and he returned to the House briefly between 30 Mar. and 4 April. It is possible that the pattern of his attendance related to tensions between Buckingham and Pembroke: his withdrawal from the Lords after 15 Mar. immediately followed the attack on Buckingham by Pembroke’s client Dr Samuel Turner^‡, while his reappearance occurred the day after Pembroke persuaded Charles not to dissolve the session. Hanmer then vanished again shortly before the Easter recess, by which time it was clear that Pembroke’s initiative had failed to yield any positive results.38 Procs. 1626, i. 14, 18, 120, 172; C. Russell, PEP, 290-5.

Hanmer was probably present at St Asaph for his second diocesan visitation, in July 1627. In the following month, he presented himself to the vacant rectory of Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire, but in the absence of any licence to hold it in commendam with his other livings he passed it to another cleric three months later.39 Roberts, 119; E331/StAsaph/10. In March 1628 he was licensed to absent himself from the forthcoming parliamentary session, giving his proxy to Theophilus Field^*, bishop of St Davids, and John Davenant^*, bishop of Salisbury. On 26 June, shortly before the end of the session, Bishop Field was ordered to remind him to send up arrears of the money collected for the victims of the 1625 plague epidemic.40 SO3/9 (Mar. 1627/8); Lords Procs. 1628, pp. 25, 87, 705. Hanmer’s absence can almost certainly be explained by failing health: his will of 30 Nov. 1628 mentioned debts to ‘Dr John Nicholas, the Spanish physician’, while at a call of the House on 9 Feb. 1629 he was noted as sick.41 PROB 11/156, ff. 194v-5; LJ, iv. 25a.

Hanmer began his will of 30 Nov. 1628 with a firmly Calvinist preamble: ‘I assuredly hope for that eternal glory … for all the elect children of God, of which number I assure myself one’. He acknowledged that he had been instructed, 18 months earlier, to present the Spaniard Dr John Nicholas, ‘who has suffered much for religion’, to the next sinecure in his gift, which he undertook to do if he lived long enough; he failed to redeem this promise before his death, on 23 July 1629. The next day, as he had requested, Hanmer was buried at Selattyn church, leaving a tenement of 15 acres to provide for the poor of the parish. This endowment was poorly handled, and was questioned at law in the 1660s. He left his manuscripts and paper books to his chaplain, Robert Foulkes, who he had recently preferred to the rectory of Meifod, Montgomeryshire.42 SO3/7, unfol. (Apr. 1627); PROB 11/156, ff.194v-6; Selattyn, 98, 220-1; Roberts, 127. His widow, Mary, retained a life interest in his estates, under the terms of her 1620 marriage settlement, which was unsuccessfully challenged at probate by his brother and eventual heir, Richard Hanmer. In 1630 Mary married a neighbour, William Owen of Brogyntyn, who served as a royalist colonel in the Civil War. She died in 1663, whereupon the estate reverted to Richard Hanmer’s heirs. While the Hanmers of Flintshire were regularly returned to the Commons for many years afterwards, this branch of the family never sat in Parliament again.43 C142/528/87; PROB 11/156, ff. 195v-6; Selattyn, 101, 163; Griffith, 218.