William Lyndewood

The mummified body of Bishop William Lyndwood (Lyndewood) was re-buried in the north cloister of Westminster Abbey after being uncovered by workmen in the crypt chapel of St Stephen's in the Palace of Westminster. The body was not in a coffin but just wrapped in cere-cloth.

The only item found with him was a wooden crozier which was deposited in the British Museum. William had requested burial in St Stephen's in his will. The wrappings were removed from around the face during the examination of the body and a pledget of tow was found in the mouth. An article with drawings of the body was published. The gravestone over his body in the Abbey reads:

William Lyndwoode Bishop of St David's 1446. Discovered in the crypt of St Stephen's Chapel in the Palace of Westminster January 16th 1852. Interred beneath this stone March 6th 1852

He born at Linwood in Lincolnshire, one of several children of woolman John Lyndwood and his wife Alice (his father has a memorial brass in Linwood church). He was educated at Cambridge and Oxford and became a doctor of laws and was ordained a priest in 1407, later serving in the consistory court at Salisbury and the court of arches in London. The posts he held were many including Warden of St Nicholas's Hospital in Scarborough, rector of Walton on the Wolds in his native county, rector in Dorset, at Shoreham in Kent, at All Hallows, Bread Street in London and at Wimbledon, canon at various times of Exeter, Hereford, Lincoln, St David's, Salisbury and Bath and Wells. With his diplomatic training he was sent on foreign missions to negotiate treaties and was keeper of the privy seal and helped found Eton College. His great work was Provinciale, on ecclesiastical legislation. In 1442 he was made bishop of St David's in Wales and died in October 1446.

Further reading

"The recent discovery of a body in St Stephen's chapel Westminster" in Archaeologia 1852