The Will of Thomas Polton, Bishop of Worcester, A.D. 1432. 58 
Papal permission; and in 1425-6 Bishop of Worcester. He had 
attended the Council of Constance 1414—18 as prothonotary for 
England. He was sent as ambassador to Rome some time about 
1430, and while there he was appointed by Henry VI. to attend the 
Council at Basle, where he died, 1432—his burial-place being either 
Basle or Rome. 
Of his six brothers, William is the only one mentioned. His 
nephew, George, succeeded to his knight’s fee at Polton—where it 
would seem that the testator was at one time resident. 
There was, apparently, a contemporary of his of the same name, 
for we find one Thomas Polton. was Vicar of Broughton Gifford, 
1899-1400; Rector of Pewsey, 1401 (resigned in 1403) ; Incumbent 
of Blackford, near Wedmore, Weston-super-Mare, prior to 1408, 
and incumbent of Laccombe, near Minehead, Somerset, prior to 
1412. If it was the same man he was indeed a pluralist. 
The following account of him, as Bishop of Worcester, is taken 
from the Dioc. Hist. of Worcester, by Rev. J. Gregory Smith and 
, Rev. P. Onslow :—“ As usual he commenced his Episcopate with a 
demand for a subsidy from the clergy of 1s. in the £ according to 
the true value of their livings. He settled a dispute between the 
warden of the College of Stratford-on-Avon and the Master of the 
Guild of the Holy Cross, in the same town, by ordering that Holy 
Cross should pay tithe to the Collegiate Church, and make certain 
annual offerings in token of subjection. By a somewhat complicated 
arrangement he appropriated the Church of Olveston, in Gloucester- 
shire, to the Prior and Convent of S. Peter and S. Paul, in Bath, 
on condition that they should find a priest for a chantry, founded by 
Sir Walter Hungerford, in the parochial Church of Hungerford, at 
an annual stipend of twelve marks, and should, after the death of 
Sir Walter Hungerford, celebrate his anniversary in the Church of 
Bath, and present 20d. to every monk on the day of celebration. 
When sent in 1432 with the Prior of Norwich, as the King’s 
Ambassador, to the Council of Basle, every care was taken to make 
the embassy honourable. He received from the clergy a subsidy of 
2d. in the £, and a promise from the King of a yearly allowance of 
500 marks, if the Council lasted beyond the year. He received 
