Arthur Lake (bishop)


Arthur Lake
Bishop of Bath and Wells
Courtesy of the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford
DioceseDiocese of Bath and Wells
In office1616–1626
PredecessorJames Montague
SuccessorWilliam Laud
Other post(s)Dean of Worcester (1608–1616)
Personal details
BornSeptember 1569
Died4 May 1626(1626-05-04) (aged 56)
Wells
BuriedWells Cathedral
NationalityBritish
DenominationAnglican
Alma materNew College, Oxford
A contemporary engraving of Arthur Lake by Wenceslas Hollar.
Tomb in Wells Cathedral

Arthur Lake (September 1569 – 4 May 1626) was Bishop of Bath and Wells and a translator of the King James Version of The Bible.

Arthur Lake was born in Southampton in September 1569 the son of Almeric Lake, a minor customs official. He attended King Edward VI School, Southampton, until he was twelve and on 28 December 1581 he was elected a scholar of Winchester College. He stayed at Winchester until he was eighteen when he became a scholar of New College, Oxford. He matriculated in July 1588, was elected a fellow of the college in 1589, accepted the degree of BA on 4 June 1591 and MA on 3 May 1595.[1] He was presented to the rectory of Havant, Hampshire in 1599. He resigned his fellowship at Oxford in 1600, and on 16 June was admitted a fellow of Winchester College. In 1601 he became rector of Hambledon (near Havant), and of Chilcomb, near Winchester, in 1603.

He was awarded a DD at Oxford and in 1609 he may have been one of the clergymen charged with editing the new English translation of the Bible commissioned by James I for whom his brother Sir Thomas acted as a secretary. There is no unequivocal evidence for this but the initials "AL" appear throughout the notes of the General Committee of Review and no other candidate has been proposed.