George Aglionby (c.1603–1643) was an English Royalist churchman, nominated in 1643 as Dean of Canterbury. He was a member of the Great Tew intellectual circle around Lucius Cary, and a friend and correspondent of Thomas Hobbes.

Life

He was the son of John Aglionby, educated at Westminster School, from which he was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1619, aged sixteen. He graduated B.A. in 1623, and successively proceeded M.A. in 1626, B.D. in 1633 and D.D. in 1635.^[1] He was hired as a tutor for her children including William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire by the widowed Countess Christian Cavendish. In this position he was the replacement for Hobbes, who was a close associate of William Cavendish, 2nd Earl of Devonshire up to his death in 1628. Aglionby wrote to Hobbes on Cavendish family matters from 1629, and later made his way into the Great Tew circle.^[2]^[3]

In 1632 Aglionby accepted the vicarage of Cassington, Oxfordshire. On the death of his uncle, Dr. John King, in 1638, he was promoted to a stall in Westminster Abbey.^[4] In the following year he was made a prebendary of Chichester, and in 1642 compounded for the Deanery there. For some time he was a master of Westminster School, and was tutor to the young George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.^[1]

He was deprived of his stall at Westminster; at Canterbury he was never installed, given the wartime conditions, and it is probable that he never visited his cathedral. He died of disease in Oxford, in November, 1643, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral there.^[1]^[5]

Family

In 1635 Aglionby married Sibilla Smith, of St. Martin-in-the Fields, London. It has been argued that William Aglionby was their son.^[6]

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c Joseph Meadows Cowper, The Lives of the Deans of Canterbury, 1541 to 1900 (1900), pp. 91-2.
^ Aloysius Martinich, Hobbes (1999), p. 82, 103.
^ Noel Malcolm, The Correspondence by Thomas Hobbes (1994).
^ Joyce M. Horn (1971). "Prebendaries: Sidlesham". Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857: volume 2: Chichester diocese. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
^ Thomas Hearne, Letters Written by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. II (1813), p. 629.
^ Craig Ashley Hanson (15 May 2009). The English Virtuoso: Art, Medicine, and Antiquarianism in the Age of Empiricism. University of Chicago Press. pp. 94–6. ISBN 978-0-226-31587-4.

Church of England titles Preceded byIsaac Bargrave Dean of Canterbury 1643 Succeeded byThomas Turner

v t e Deans of Chichester
High Medieval	Odo Richard Matthew Richard John de Greneford Jordan de Meleburn Seffride Matthew de Chichester Nicholas de Aquila Seffride Simon de Perigord Walter Thomas de Lichfield Geoffrey Walter de Glocestria Thomas de Berghstede
Late Medieval	William de Grenefeld John de St Leophardo Henry de Garland Walter de Segrave William Lenn Roger de Freton Richard le Scrope William de Lullyngton John de Maydenhith John Haselee Henry Lovel Richard Talbot William Milton John Patten/Waynflete John Crutchere John Waynfleet John Cloos
Early modern	John Prychard Geoffrey Symson John Young William Fleshmonger Richard Caurden Giles Eyre Bartholomew Traheron Thomas Sampson William Pye Hugh Turnbull Richard Curteys Anthony Rushe Martin Culpepper William Thorne Francis Dee Richard Steward George Aglionby Bruno Ryves Joseph Henshaw Joseph Gulston Nathaniel Crew Thomas Lambrook George Stradling Francis Hawkins William Hayley Thomas Sherlock John Newey Thomas Hayley James Hargraves William Ashburnham Thomas Ball Charles Harward
Late modern	Combe Miller Christopher Bethell Samuel Slade George Chandler Walter Hook John Burgon Francis Pigou Richard Randall John Hannah Arthur Duncan Jones Walter Hussey Robert Holtby John Treadgold Nicholas Frayling Stephen Waine

v t e Deans of Canterbury
Early modern	Nicholas Wotton Thomas Godwin Richard Rogers Thomas Nevile Charles Fotherby John Boys Isaac Bargrave George Aglionby Thomas Turner John Tillotson John Sharp George Hooper George Stanhope Elias Sydall John Lynch William Freind John Potter Brownlow North John Moore James Cornwallis George Horne William Buller Folliott Cornewall
Late modern	Thomas Powys Gerrard Andrewes Hugh Percy Richard Bagot William Lyall Henry Alford Robert Payne Smith Frederic Farrar Henry Wace George Bell Dick Sheppard Hewlett Johnson Ian White-Thomson Victor de Waal John Simpson Robert Willis David Monteith