[Several volumes in the Library at Lambeth Palace.]
George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury (born 29th October 1562, died 4th August 1633), was a native of Guildford, and took orders in 1585, afterwards becoming a tutor at Oxford, where he was also a Fellow of Balliol. He was a strong Puritan and a popular preacher at St. Mary's.
In 1597, Abbot was elected Master of University College, and in 1599 he became Dean of Winchester and also Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He wrote several treatises on the religious questions of his time, and enjoyed the personal esteem of James I., who thought very highly of him as a theologian and as a politician.
The King's favour showed in the rapid promotion of Dr. Abbot. In 1609 he was consecrated Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and later in the same year he was translated to London. In the next year, on the death of Archbishop Bancroft, Abbot was made Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Abbot had no sinecure in his Archbishopric, and his many enemies and the troubled state of theological matters generally left him but little peace. In 1621, when shooting with a crossbow at a buck, he accidentally killed a gamekeeper, and this not only preyed much upon his mind, but it also offered a handle for his detractors, especially those among the clergy, many of whom held that homicide rendered him unfit for his high position.
On the death of James I. Royal favour deserted the Archbishop, as Charles I. never appears to have thought well of him. In 1627, on more or less unjust pretexts, he suffered sequestration of his office, and a commission was appointed to exercise the Archiepiscopal functions, and Abbot retired to his native town, Guildford, where he died in 1633. Many of his books remain in the Library at Lambeth Palace.
ABROL
Arms.—Per pale or and gu., three roundels interchanged, a crescent for difference.
Motto.—Teres atque rotundus.