Rudd, John (1498-03-25 - 1579-03-25)

Rudd was born in Yorkshire ca. 1498. He attended Clare College, Cambridge, beginning in 1515, earning his B.A. (1516/7), M.A. (1520), and B.D. (1531). He was ordained in 1521. As an opponent the ecclesiastical changes of the 1530s, Rudd was imprisoned for a short time in 1534. Later, during a wave of conservatism in the 1540s, Rudd was made clerk of the closet under Henry VIII. By 1547, he was vicar of Norton, County Durham. He was made royal chaplain to Edward VI in the early 1550s. Rudd got married to Isabel Whildon in 1551, which would cost him his livings after Mary I ascended to the throne. They had three sons and three daughters. Having confessed for getting married, Rudd became vicar of Dewsbury, Yorkshire (1554) and Hornsea-cum-Riston, Yorkshire (1557), as well as rector of Thornhill, Yorkshire (1558). Under Elizabeth I, Rudd got his wife back as well as his living in Norton; at this point he resigned from Hornsea-cum-Riston. In 1570, Rudd resigned from his vicare at Dewsbury, a year after accepting the more lucrative position of rector Romaldkirk, Yorkshire. Rudd was also a successful cartographer. He died in 1579 in Durham.