Hanmer, Meredith (1543-03-25 - 1604-03-25)

Born ca. 1543 to Thomas Hanmer in Porkington, Shropshire. Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he was made chaplain in 1567. BA, 1568; MA, 1572; BD, 1581 (as a nobleman's chaplain); DD, 1582. He held numerous benefices including, rector of Long Ditton, Surrey, 1572-1577; of Astbury, Cheshire, 1572; vicar of Hanmer, Flintshire, 1574-1583; of St Leonard, Shoreditch, 1581-1592; of Islington, Middlesex, 1583-1590. Earned a reputation as a scholar, penning responses to Edmund Campion's challenge in 1581, and most famously for producing The Ancient Ecclesiastical Histories in 1577, which gave a Protestant interpretation of the first six centuries of church history. Accusations of misappropriation of funds, circulating libelous material about the Queen, and sodomy encouraged him to relocate to Ireland ca. 1591. There he began an ecclesiastical and scholarly career anew becoming archdeacon of Ross and vicar of Timoleague in 1591; treasurer of Waterford Cathedral in 1593; vicar of Kilbeacon and Killaghy, Muckully, and Rathpatrick in the diocese of Ossory in 1598; chancellor of Ossory in 1603. He also wrote A Chronicle of Ireland, published posthumously in 1633. Married Mary Austin at Shoreditch in 1581, with whom he had four daughters. Died of plague in Dublin in 1604.