Archbishop John Colton

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Colton, John, Archbishop of Armagh and Lord-Chancellor of Ireland, was born in Norfolk early in the 14th century. In 1373 he was appointed Lord-Treasurer of Ireland, next year Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin; in 1379,Lord-Chancellor; in 1381, Lord-Justice (on the death of Edmund Mortimer); and in 1382 he was raised to the primacy by Pope Urban VI. "He was a man of great talent and activity; .. was of high reputation for virtue and learning, dear to all ranks of people for his affability and sweetness of temper." In 1372, at his sole cost, he raised a body of twenty-six knights, "and being reinforced by the well-affected of the district," marched against O'Moore and O'Byrne. Archbishop Colton died at an advanced age, 27th April 1404, and was buried in the church of St. Peter, at Drogheda. His Visitation of the Diocese of Derry in 1397, was in 1850 published, from the original at Armagh, with an exhaustive preface and notes, by Dr. Reeves.

Sources

85a. Colton, Archbishop: Visitation of the Diocese of Derry, A.D. 1397; Edited by Rev. William Reeves, D.D. (I.A.S.) Dublin, 1850.

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