HUGH OF

See also:

• WELLS
• WELLS, CHARLES JEREMIAH (1798?–1879)
• WELLS, DAVID AMES (1828—1898)
• WELLS, HERBERT GEORGE (1866— )
• WELLS, SIR THOMAS SPENCER, 1ST BART

WELLS  , one of King John's officials and councillors, became bishop of Lincoln in 1209 . He soon fell into disfavour with John, and the earlier years of his bishopric were mainly spent abroad, while the king seized the revenues of his see . However, he was one of John's supporters when Magna Carta was signed, and after the accession of Henry III. he was able to turn his attention to his episcopal duties . His chief work was the establishment of vicarages in his diocese, thus rendering the parish priest more independent of the monastic houses; this policy, and consequently Hugh himself, was heartily disliked by Matthew Paris and other monastic writers . The bishop, who did some building at Lincoln and also at Wells, died on the 7th of February 1235 . ST HUGH OF LINCOLN, a native of Lincoln, was a child about ten years old when he was found dead on premises belonging to a Jew . It was said, and the story was generally believed, that the boy had been scourged and crucified in imitation of the death of Jesus Christ . Great and general indignation was aroused, and a number of Jews were hanged or punished in other ways . The incident is referred to by Chaucer in the Prioresses Tale and by Marlowe in the Jew of Malta .