Close is widely regarded as having been born in Westmorland, in Birkbeck Fells,[1] but may have been of Flemish descent.
[3][4] He held the curacy of St John Zachary,[4] a church demolished to make way for King's College Chapel, the construction of which he was appointed overseer by Henry VI.
[6] On 19 March he was granted an indult from the King "for life and as long as he is bishop of Carlisle, to visit his city and diocese by deputy (he being hindered so much by the service of Henry, king of England that he cannot conveniently do so in person).
"[2] Also in 1450 he was elected to the then annual position of Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
[7] He was Bishop of Carlisle from 1450 to 1452, and was then translated to Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield on 30 August 1452, serving for a short time before his death in late October 1452.