John Atherton

For other people named John Atherton, see John Atherton (disambiguation).

John Atherton, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, was hanged for sodomy under a law that he had helped to institute; his proctor John Childe was also hanged. Anonymous pamphlet, 1641

John Atherton (1598 – 5 December 1640) was the Anglican Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in the Church of Ireland. He and John Childe (his steward and tithe proctor) were both tried and executed for buggery in 1640.

Life and death

Atherton was born in 1598 in Somerset, England. He studied at Oxford University and joined the ranks of the Anglican clergy. In 1634 he became Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in the Church of Ireland. In 1640 Atherton was accused of buggery with a man, John Childe, his steward and tithe proctor. They were tried under a law that Atherton himself had helped to institute. They were both condemned to death, and Atherton was executed in Stephen's Green, Dublin. Reportedly, he confessed to the crime immediately before his execution, although he had proclaimed his innocence before that. More recently, some historical evidence has been developed that shows Atherton might have been a victim of a conspiracy to discredit him and his patrons. This was attributable to Atherton's status as an astute lawyer, who sought to recover lost land for the relatively weak Protestant Church of Ireland during the 1630s. Unfortunately for Atherton, this alienated him from large landowners, who then allegedly used his sexuality to discredit him.

English Puritan, Congregationalist and Independent activists, as well as English and Scottish Presbyterian activists, contemporaneously campaigned to abolish Episcopacy (bishops) within the embattled Church of England, Church of Scotland and Church of Ireland; notionally expediting the political interest in Atherton's downfall.

Posthumous accusations of sexual wrongdoing also include allegations of "incest" with his sister-in-law, and infanticide of the resultant child, as well as zoophilia with cattle. However, these allegations began to be circulated several months after his death in an anonymous pamphlet, and may have been intended to further discredit the bishop's campaign to restore the finances of the Church of Ireland

See also

• List of people executed for homosexuality

Further reading

• Bray, Alan (1982) Homosexuality in Renaissance England. London: Gay Men's Press
• Parris, Matthew (1998) The Great Unfrocked: two thousand years of church scandal. London: Robson Books ISBN 1-86105-129-8; pp. 157–62
• Norton, Rictor, The Life and Death of John Atherton (online reprint, at the end of the web page)
• Marshall, Peter (2007) "Sex, Scandal and the Supernatural" in: History Today: February 2007: 70-71
• Marshall, Peter (2007) Mother Leakey & the Bishop: a ghost story Oxford U. P. ISBN 978-0-19-927371-3
• The political ballance, for 1754. The mock-patriot, for 1753. To which is added, the case of John Atherton, Bishop of Waterford in Ireland, who was convicted of bestiality with a cow and other creatures, for which he was hang'd at Dublin; with a full account of his behaviour after condemnation, and the letters he left before his execution: By N. Barnard, Dean of Ardagh, at the command of the Primate of Ireland (1754)