Anthony Sparrow


Anthony Sparrow was an English Anglican priest. He was Bishop of Norwich and Bishop of Exeter.

Career

Born in 1612, Sparrow was educated and became a fellow at Queens' College, Cambridge, and was ordained a priest in February 1635. He was an adherent to the Laudianism movement. In April 1644 under the parliamentarian purge of the university, he was ejected for non-residence by Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester. In 1647, he was ejected from rectory of Hawkedon for using the outlawed Book of Common Prayer. Following the Restoration, he was reinstated in 1660; and held the post of Archdeacon of Sudbury from then until 1667. In 1667, he became Bishop of Exeter and in 1676 he was promoted to bishop of Norwich. He died on 19 May 1685. In his will, he left £100 to the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral.

Marriage and progeny

He married and left at his death several daughters as his co-heiresses, one of whom was Joan Sparrow, wife of Edward Drew of The Grange, Broadhembury, Devon, a Canon of Exeter Cathedral.