HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [261 



the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and May 2, 1632, he was pre- 

 sented by the King to the vicarage of Hackney, in Middlesex. 

 On the 25th of June, 1634, he compounded for his degree of D. D. 

 and in March, 1635, was elected Warden of All Souls College. 



In 1635, Dr. Sheldon was appointed Chaplain in Ordinary to the 

 King, and was afterwards Clerk of the Closet. During the Civil 

 War between the King and Parliament, Dr. Sheldon adhered con- 

 scientiously to the cause of his Royal Master ; and in 1644, he 

 was one of the King's Chaplains, sent by his Majesty to attend 

 his Commissioners at the Treaty of Uxbridge, where the learned 

 Doctor argued earnestly and eloquently in favour of the Church. 



In April 1646, he attended the King at Oxford, and was witness 

 to a vow made by his Majesty, that if it should please God to re- 

 establish his throne, he would restore to the Church all lands, im- 

 propriations, &c. which were taken from any Episcopal See, Ca- 

 thedral, &c. A copy of this vow was preserved by Dr. Sheldon, 

 and afterwards published in the Appendix to Echard's History. 



Dr. Sheldon attended the King at Newmarket, and afterwards 

 in the Isle of Wight, in the year 1647 ; and on the 30th of March, 

 1648, he was ejected from his Wardenship of All Souls College by 

 the Parliamentary Visitors, and imprisoned by order of Parlia- 

 ment, with Dr. Hammond, at Oxford. He was confined about six 

 months, and then liberated, on the hard conditions that he should 

 not come within five miles of Oxford, nor go to the King in the 

 Isle of Wight, and that he should appear before the Reforming Com- 

 mittee at fourteen days' warning. 



Dr. Sheldon now retired to Snelston, in Derbyshire, where he 

 collected money by contribution among his friends, and sent 

 it from time to time to the exiled King. He pursued his studies 

 without interruption till the approach of the Restoration. Dr. 

 John Palmer, who had been placed in the Wardenship of All Souls 

 College, died on the 4th of March, 1660, and there being a pros- 

 pect of his Majesty's immediate return to England, there was no 

 election of a successor, but the place was left vacant for Dr. Shel- 

 don, who, however, never re-possessed it, for he now had higher 

 prospects of preferment. 



On the return of Charles the Second, Dr. Sheldon met him at 

 Canterbury, where he was most graciously received by that Sove- 

 reign, to whom he had been so faithful. He was soon after made 

 Dean of the Royal Chapel, and when Bishop Juxon was translated 

 to the See of Canterbury, Dr. Sheldon was elected Bishop of Lon- 



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