SEARCHFIELD, Rowland (1565-1622)

Searchfield’s parentage is unknown, but his education at Merchant Taylors’ school suggests he was the son of a London freeman. His school had the nomination of several scholarships at St John’s College, Oxford, one of which he took up in 1582; as a young BA he was tutor to another former alumnus of Merchant Taylors’, the future judge, James Whitelocke^‡. Granted leave to preach a series of sermons in London in 1594, including one at Paul’s Cross, he returned to Oxford thereafter, becoming a key figure in college administration at the end of Elizabeth’s reign. He also acquired a living in the college’s gift, the rectory of Evenley, Northamptonshire in 1600, and another at Eastleach Martin, Gloucestershire under crown patronage, in 1601. These were treated as sinecures, as in 1605 Thomas Ravis^*, bishop of Gloucester (later bishop of London), was notified about his prolonged absenteeism.15 Liber Famelicus of Sir James Whitelocke ed. J. Bruce (Cam. Soc. lxx), 12-13; CCEd; Biog. Reg. of St John’s Coll. Oxf. 131; Fincham, 134.

In 1602 a visitor to Oxford made notes on a sermon preached by Searchfield against the ‘dissembled Christian’, who ‘can gladly bear his physician’s discourse of his diet and remedy, but will not endure to observe them’.16 Diary of John Manningham ed. R.P. Sorlien, 40-1. However, in around 1603, Searchfield became a chaplain to the courtier Lord Henry Howard^* (later earl of Northampton), himself widely regarded as a Nicodemite for declaring his conversion to Protestantism in the hopes of preferment from King James. Searchfield clearly hoped to rise on his patron’s coat-tails, but in October 1604 he resigned himself to remaining in Oxford, ‘to which soil I am more than bewitched’. Yet at the same time he asked Northampton’s permission to apply for a chaplaincy under Richard Bancroft^*, newly appointed archbishop of Canterbury, in which quest he was successful: in December 1606 his Oxford college allowed him to postpone the exercises for his doctorate, while working for Bancroft.17 SP14/9/65; Biog. Reg. St John’s Coll. Oxf. 131. Searchfield resigned his fellowship at St John’s in November 1606, three weeks before he married the daughter of Ralph Hutchenson, the recently deceased president (master) of the college. His wife’s dowry was the vicarage of Charlbury, Oxfordshire, the advowson of which his late father-in-law (then incumbent of the living) had purchased in 1602. Hutchenson had assigned his interest to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, with a reversion to his own college, but in his will he gave his wife the first right of presentation after his death, urging her to have ‘a principal regard’ of the fellows of St John’s.18 PROB 11/108, f. 380; Biog. Reg. of St. John’s Coll. Oxf. 131.

Searchfield secured his doctorate in 1608, arguing theses that reflected Bancroft’s ecclesiastical agenda: variant forms of religion were incompatible with unity of faith; none could be saved by the faith of another; and that heretics should be compelled to conform outwardly.19 Reg. Univ. Oxf. vol. ii, pt. 1, ed. A. Clark (Oxf. Hist. Soc. x), 204. The death of his patrons – Bancroft in 1610 and Northampton in 1614 – may help to explain why Searchfield’s career marked time for the next decade, but by 1617 he had become a royal chaplain, preaching one of the Lent sermons at court.20 P.E. McCullough, Sermons at Ct. (suppl. cal. 214); Fincham, 306. In March 1619 he was nominated to the bishopric of Bristol, vacated by the translation of Nicholas Felton^* to Ely. His patron is unknown, but as Bristol, worth only £340 p.a., was one of the poorest English dioceses, his chief asset may have been a willingness to accept the see for no more than a dispensation to retain both his parochial livings in commendam.21 Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, viii. 10; C58/23; Trans. Congregational Hist. Soc. (1913-15), vi. 56. As few diocesan records survive, little can be said about his churchmanship. However, he appointed his former pupil Sir James Whitelocke as his legal counsel, and it is also known that the apparitor he appointed to his consistory court was later removed by one of his successors, George Coke^*. Although no articles survive, Searchfield conducted his 1619 visitation in person, consecrating a chapel at Chantemarle, Dorset, and confirming 500 people on the same day, before his stamina failed.22 Liber Famelicus of Sir Jas. Whitelocke, 76; SP16/357/101.I; Fincham, 125, 128.

By the time Parliament convened in January 1621, Searchfield’s health was failing. One of four prelates who held the proxy of Miles Smith^*, bishop of Gloucester, he was present for about two-thirds of the sittings of the House of Lords before the summer recess. Even so, his attendance was punctuated by bouts of ill health.23 LJ, iii. 3b, 25a, 26b; Add. 40085, f. 158. He was named to only two committees, one for an estate bill concerning the manor of Little Munden, Hertfordshire, the other, shortly before the summer recess, to consider what action to take about petitions submitted to the Lords which had not yet been scrutinized.24 LJ, iii. 132b, 141b. He failed to return to Westminster when Parliament reconvened in November, instead assigning his proxy to John Buckeridge^*, bishop of Rochester.25 Ibid. 4a.

In 1622, when a benevolence was raised for the Palatinate in lieu of the subsidy lost at the dissolution, the clergy of Bristol diocese contributed two-thirds of the value of a clerical subsidy, a disappointing yield which presumably reflected the bishop’s failing health.26 SP14/133/13. Searchfield died on 11 Oct. 1622, and was buried in his cathedral. Despite his long illness, he failed to leave a will, nor was any administration sought, doubtless because his estate was promptly sequestrated by the Exchequer for outstanding debts of £443. The lord treasurer, Lionel Cranfield^*, 1st earl of Middlesex, noting that Searchfield’s goods would not suffice to cover this sum, even if his widow were left destitute, recommended that the debt be waived, which was probably allowed. His wife was still living in Bristol with her children at the time of her own death in 1632.27 Fasti, viii. 10; Kent Hist. and Lib. Cent., U269/1/OE1494; PROB 11/162, ff. 159-60. His living at Charlbury passed (briefly) to one of his wife’s relatives after his death, but his bishopric was so poorly endowed that none of those initially considered as his successor wanted it.28 CCEd; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 462; T. Birch, Ct. and Times Jas. I, ii. 349-50.