William Sancroft (30 January 1617-24 November 1693) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1677 to 1690, succeeding Gilbert Sheldon and preceding John Tillotson.
Biography[]
William Sancroft was born in Fressingfield, Suffolk, England in 1617. He graduated from Cambridge in 1634 before becoming a fellow at Cambridge in 1642, only to be ejected in 1649 for refusing to swear allegiance to Oliver Cromwell. He went into exile until the Restoration in 1660, after which he became a university preacher and served as master of Emmanuel College from 1662 to 1665. He became Dean of St. Paul's in 1664, helping to rebuild the cathedral after the Great Fire of London. He went on to serve as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1677 to 1690, attending King Charles II of England on his deathbed and crowning King James II of England. While he opposed the Declaration of Indulgence towards Catholics in 1688, he refused to take the oath to King William III of England and Queen Mary II of England following the Glorious Revolution. He was accordingly suspended and deprived in 1690, and he enabled and supported the consecration of new nonjuring bishops, leading to the nonjuring schism.