William Alley

William Alley (also Alleyn and Alleigh; 1510 – 15 April 1570) was an Anglican prelate who was the Bishop of Exeter during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Here are adioyned at the ende of euery special treatise, certain fruitful annotacions called miscellanea, because they do entreate of diverse and sundry matters.

While a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral, London, he was fixed on by Queen Elizabeth to succeed the deprived James Turberville.

But the rectory of Honiton was given to the bishop towards the better maintenance of his rank; and in its parochial church, and even in the rectory-house, he held several ordinations "in Rectoria - in domo Domini Episcopi apud Honyton", as we learn from his registers.

Owing to the impoverished state of the finances of his dean and chapter, with the unanimous consent of its members, and under the royal authority, he diminished the number of the canons of the cathedral from twenty-four to nine.

This article contains text from George Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, Broadgate, England: William Roberts, 1861, a work in the public domain.