[BISSE, Edward, letters, autographs, documents, manuscripts



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Disgraced clergyman or persecuted Jacobite?

[BISSE, Edward Jacobite & clerk vicar of Portbury.]
Document issued by the Bishop of Bath & Wells, 1 page 8vo (oblong, laid down on an album leaf, some browning at the edges), undated, c. 1710.
'By virtue of a Mandate to me directed from the Right Revd Father in God John Lord Bp of Bath and Wells I do publish denounce and declare Edward Bisse Clerk Vicar of Portbury to be lawfully and rightfully suspended ... from the execution of his Ministerial Office and function for the span of three years for the reason of Drunkeness by him the Sd Edward Bisse often being committed within the Sd parish of Portbury and places adjacent to the peril of his Soul and the great Scandal and disgrace of his Sacerdotal Office.'

Edward Bisse was a fiery sermonizer in support of the Jacobite cause at a time when such leanings were subject to strict punishment.
'[He]... progressed through the West country assuring his audiences that 'GEORGE ... has no Business here. We have had no Laws these Thirty Years, never since the time of King James the Second, nor shall till King James ... comes. ...'

Bisse was apprehended in Bristol in 1718 and sentenced to the pillory, although it seems that when he was pilloried at Charing Cross nothing was thrown at him.Jacobitism and the English people, 1688-1788 by Paul Kléber Monod, page 149].
[No: 26554]


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