William Dudley (Sutton)

In the chapel of St Nicholas in Westminster Abbey is the tomb of William Dudley, Bishop of Durham. The Purbeck marble altar tomb has lost the brass effigy of the bishop and the shields are blank. There is an elaborate canopy. The inscription was recorded in John Dart's 1723 history of the Abbey and this can be translated:

Here lies William de Dudley of the family of the Barons of Dudley, Bishop of Durham. He died A.D. 1483

He was a son of John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley and his wife Elizabeth (Berkeley). Educated at Oxford he became rector of Malpas in Cheshire. He was a supporter of Edward IV and was one of his chaplains and Dean of the Chapel Royal. Later he was Dean of St George's chapel Windsor and held offices at York, Salisbury, Chichester and Wells cathedrals before promoted to be bishop of Durham in 1476. He died suddenly on 29th November 1483.

The engraving comes from Dart's history.

Further reading for William and his father

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography