Thomas Prestbury

Who is Thomas Prestbury?

Thomas Prestbury was an English medieval Benedictine abbot and university Chancellor.

Prestbury was the abbot at Shrewsbury Abbey from 1399–1426. He was sometimes involved in conflict. In April 1399, King Richard II ordered that he should be taken into custody and committed to the Abbot of Westminster. When he was elected to the position of abbot four months later, the king was captive. It is likely that Prestbury had Lancastrian leanings. Later he tried to make peace before the Battle of Shrewsbury.

Prestbury was twice Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1393–94 and 1409–10. As the commissary of the Bishop of Lincoln, he oversaw the burning of John Wycliffe's books at Carfax in the centre of Oxford.