Note 127 — SHREWSBURY. (continued 2)

Henry VIII. had previously by an Act of the twenty-sixth year of his reign appointed twenty-six suffragan or assistant bishops, to whom he assigned twenty-six borough towns dispersed over the kingdom as their sees. Shrewsbury was judiciously selected as one. This useful law was however seldom enforced, one only suffragan Bishop of Shrewsbury being known; Lewis Thomas, late Abbot of Cwmhîr, consecrated suffragan Bishop of the see of Salop by Archbishop Cranmer, 24th June, 1537. He died 1560 or 1561.