JUXON, WILLIAM (1582-1663), English prelate, was the son of Robert Juxon
and was born probably at Chichester, being educated at Merchant Taylors'
School, London, and at St John's College, Oxford, where he was elected
to a scholarship in 1598. He studied law at Oxford, but afterwards he
took holy orders, and in 1609 became vicar of St Giles, Oxford, a living
which he retained until he became rector of Somerton, Oxfordshire, in
1615. In December 1621 he succeeded his friend, William Laud, as
president of St John's College, and in 1626 and 1627 he was
vice-chancellor of the university. Juxon soon obtained other important
positions, including that of chaplain-in-ordinary to Charles I. In 1627
he was made dean of Worcester and in 1632 he was nominated to the
bishopric of Hereford, an event which led him to resign the presidency
of St John's in January 1633. However, he never took up his episcopal
duties at Hereford, as in October 1633 he was consecrated bishop of
London in succession to Laud. He appears to have been an excellent
bishop, and in March 1636 Charles I. entrusted him with important
secular duties by making him lord high treasurer of England; thus for
the next five years he was dealing with the many financial and other
difficulties which beset the king and his advisers. He resigned the
treasurership in May 1641. During the Civil War the bishop, against whom
no charges were brought in parliament, lived undisturbed at Fulham
Palace, and his advice was often sought by the king, who had a very high
opinion of him, and who at his execution selected him to be with him on
the scaffold and to administer to him the last consolations of religion.
Juxon was deprived of his bishopric in 1649 and retired to Little
Compton in Gloucestershire, where he had bought an estate, and here he
became famous as the owner of a pack of hounds. At the restoration of
Charles II. he became archbishop of Canterbury and in his official
capacity he took part in the coronation of this king, but his health
soon began to fail and he died at Lambeth on the 4th of June 1663. By
his will the archbishop was a benefactor to St John's College, where he
was buried; he also aided the work of restoring St Paul's Cathedral and
rebuilt the great hall at Lambeth Palace.
See W. H. Marah, _Memoirs of Archbishop Juxon and his Times_ (1869);
the best authority for the archbishop's life is the article by W. H.
Hutton in the _Dict. Nat. Biog._ (1892).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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