Thomas Wood (bishop of Lichfield and Coventry)
He had in the meantime taken Holy Orders, and was, by the influence of his family at Court, appointed at the age of 28 a chaplain in ordinary to the King, who presented him in the same year, on 2 July 1635, to the Rectory of Whickham in the county of Durham.About the same time he obtained from Charles I a royal mandate to the Bishop of Durham to present him on the next vacancy to a prebendal stall in his cathedral, but before this appointment was completed, his course of preferment was interrupted by the Civil War, and he was ejected from his living by the Parliament.At the same time he was reinstated as one of the chaplains in ordinary at Court, and on 15 June 1660 he made petition to the King to give effect to the mandate of Charles I. by bestowing upon him the Prebend at Durham, which had been vacant since the death of the Bishop of Exeter on 7 December 1659.His puritanical principles made him hateful to the Bishops of both dioceses, who were High Churchmen, and were zealously engaged in restoring the fabric and ornaments of their cathedrals, whilst his personal meanness and avarice were a bye-word with his brother Prebendaries.It is not surprising that the Dean's wife was of one mind with her husband in his puritanical opinions and his partiality to the Nonconformists, for all her family associations were connected with the extreme Protestant party at Newcastle upon Tyne.The success with which the Dean set at defiance all complaints of his conduct, and his brother's position at Court, caused then a general expectation at Durham and Lichfield that he would be promoted to the next vacant bishopric.And that was realised in the following year, for when Sir Henry Wood concluded with Lord Treasurer Clifford the treaty for the marriage of his only surviving child Mary to the King's eldest son by the Duchess of Cleveland, it was part of the bargain that the vacant bishopric of Lichfield should be given to his brother.Bishop Wood was a great benefactor to Christ Church, Oxford, for he contributed liberally in his lifetime to the rebuilding of the large quadrangle and by his Will he left in trust for students lands of above 200 l. a year, and 3000 l. in money.As Treasurer in the Royal Household he did not desert Queen Henrietta Maria (1609–1669) when fortunes were at their lowest ebb or because his salary had long been unpaid; he even advanced out money of his own resources for payment.A similar settlement was attempted between another natural child of the King and Charles Wood alias Cranmer (1665–1743), grandson of Lady Chester who was the Bishop's sister and who as trustee protested to no result the manoeuvrings of the Duchess in the House of Lords.The bishop's sister, Mary Wood (1604–1684), eldest daughter first married at St. Margaret's Westminster on 4 July 1633 widower Samuel Cranmer (1575–1640), proprietor of the Swan Brewery, who was Alderman of Cripplegate Ward when he served as one of the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex.He was graciously received by the exiled Queen and was high in her favour when he married some years later one of the ladies of her Court, Lelis de la Garde (1642–1726); a position she held until her death.