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of that of Chester, in which Sizergh was then situate, favoured 
the idea that he was locally a Penrith man, In the pages of 
Burn and Nicolson, we first meet with him in 1368 exchanging 
the rectory of Stapleton for that of Ousby, the nearest location to 
Penrith we find him occupying. He held Ousby, however, only a 
few months. 
It is to be noted in Nicolson and Burn that the adoption of 
native place names for surnames was especially practised by the 
clergy of Strickland’s time; thus at Stapleton we find John de 
Stapleton, Robert de Bolton, John de Kirby, and at Ousby Adam 
de Appleby, Thomas de Caldbeck, William de Wilton, Richard de 
Ulvesby (Ousby), and Thomas de Azrkland, while Strickland’s 
ordinary and patron was Thomas de Affleby. It is therefore 
evident that his bearing the name or designation of de Strickland 
is in itself no reason for assigning his origin to Sizergh. There is 
no evidence that Strickland was ever vicar of Penrith; but as 
there is a blank in the list of Penrith vicars from 1355 to 1428, it 
is possible be may have held the living between his leaving Ousby 
in 1368 or 1369, and his appointment as chaplain to Bishop 
Appleby, which position he occupied before that Bishop (1388) 
presented him to the living of Horncastle in Lincolnshire, then 
attached to the see of Carlisle. 
In 1395 he was elected by the Chapter of Carlisle to be Bishop, 
but was refused by the Pope, who would have none but foreign 
priests for English bishops. He was again elected in 1400, when 
by intercession of Henry IV. he was accepted by the Pope. 
Bishop Strickland had the same liberal hand for Carlisle as he 
had for Penrith. He built the cathedral tower, and furnished it 
with four bells ; he gave the choir stalls and tabernacle work ; and 
built a tower at Rose Castle, which long continued to be known 
as the Strickland tower. 
As before mentioned, Strickland was contemporaneous with 
Sir Richard Whittington. He would probably be born twenty 
years before Whittington, but died only four years earlier. Both 
employed their means in works of philanthropy and piety, each 
according to his means, the one as a city millionare, the other asa 
