_BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES._
1. W. of Esseby, Warden and Custos, c. 1225.--2. E. de Merc, Warden, 1237.--3. P. of Tewkesbury, Custos, 1236-1248.--4. J. of Stamford, Custos, 1253.--5. Martin, Warden, c. 1250.--6. Adam of Warminster, Warden, 1269.--7. J. Codyngton, Warden, 1300.--8. J. of Okehampton, Warden, 1340.--9. R. Clyff, Custos, 1465.--10. R. Salford, Warden, 1488.--11. W. Vavasour, Warden, c. 1500.--12. R. Burton, Warden (and Custos), 1508.--13. W. Goodfield, Warden, before 1513.--14. J. Harvey, Warden, 1513.--15. E. Baskerfield, Warden (and Custos), 1534.
Unlike the Abbots and Priors of the _religiosi possessionati_, the heads of the Mendicant Houses required no royal assent to their appointment. Their names consequently do not occur in the royal records, and to this fact is due the incompleteness of the following list of the custodians and wardens of the Grey Friars at Oxford. It is a noteworthy if not surprising fact, that not a single original work by any of these men can now be found.
=William of Esseby= (perhaps Ashby in Norfolk)[818], the first warden, was one of the four clerks who came to England with Agnellus in 1224; he was then a young man and a novice, having recently joined the Order in France[819], and only assumed the habit of a _professus_ when he became warden at Oxford[820]. He was among the first three Minorites authorized to preach in England[821].
When the English Province was divided into custodies (c. 1226?), he was made custodian of Oxford[822]. Afterwards he was sent to found the convent at Cambridge, and Eccleston draws a strange picture of him solemnly chanting the service, with one other friar and a crippled novice, in the wooden shed which served for a chapel[823]. Later William is heard of at Northampton[824]. About 1238, he was sent by Friar Wygmund, the German _visitator_ of England, to visit Ireland; his mission here proved as abortive as that of the German in England; on his return he went to Cologne to join Wygmund[825]. He had ceased to be warden or custodian of Oxford before 1237[826]. He was alive when William of Nottingham became Provincial Minister, and died ‘after many years’ at London[827].
Eccleston gives him a high character. He was specially distinguished for his obedience.