In 1438 Adam Moleyns was appointed Archdeacon of Salisbury.
In 1438 Adam Moleyns was appointed Archdeacon of Taunton.
In 1438 Adam Moleyns was appointed Dean of St Buryan.
From 1441 to 1446 Adam Moleyns was appointed Dean of Salisbury.
In 1444 Bishop Adam Moleyns was appointed Lord Privy Seal.
In 1444 Adam Moleyns was appointed Dean of St Buryan.
Chronicle of Gregory. 1445. And that same year the Prevy Sealle comynge fro enbassetry out of Fraunce was gretely comberyd with fortune of the see, in soo moche that many of his men were drownyde.
On 24th September 1445 Bishop Adam Moleyns was elected Bishop of Chichester.
On 6th February 1446 Bishop Adam Moleyns was consecrated Bishop of Chichester at Lambeth Palace [Map].
William of Worcester's Chronicle of England
William of Worcester, born around 1415, and died around 1482 was secretary to John Fastolf, the renowned soldier of the Hundred Years War, during which time he collected documents, letters, and wrote a record of events. Following their return to England in 1440 William was witness to major events. Twice in his chronicle he uses the first person: 1. when writing about the murder of Thomas, 7th Baron Scales, in 1460, he writes '… and I saw him lying naked in the cemetery near the porch of the church of St. Mary Overie in Southwark …' and 2. describing King Edward IV's entry into London in 1461 he writes '… proclaimed that all the people themselves were to recognize and acknowledge Edward as king. I was present and heard this, and immediately went down with them into the city'. William’s Chronicle is rich in detail. It is the source of much information about the Wars of the Roses, including the term 'Diabolical Marriage' to describe the marriage of Queen Elizabeth Woodville’s brother John’s marriage to Katherine, Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, he aged twenty, she sixty-five or more, and the story about a paper crown being placed in mockery on the severed head of Richard, 3rd Duke of York.
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Chronicle of Gregory. 1448. And that same year was a tretys of trewys takyn whythe the Schottys by Mayster Adam Molaynys for iiij [4] year, that tyme he beyng enbasytor in to Schotlonde, and aftyr that Prevy Seale, ande thenne i-made Byschoppe of Chychester, and with ynne shorte tyme aftyr put to dethe.
Chronicle of Gregory. 1450. Ande that same year was the moste pa[r]te of Normandy y-loste, and a Parlymentte was at Westemyster. In the mene whyle was the [city] of Eoon [Map], Mustarde Vylers, and Herflete i-loste by fore Crystysmasse, and thenne the Parlyment was prolongyd tylle aftyr Syn Hyllary is day. Ande at that tyme beyng many sowdyers at Portysmowthe [Map], the whyche haddyn take the kyngys [aged 28] wagys for to pass ovyr the see. And anon aftyr Crystysmasse was sende unto the see syde the Prevye Sealle, whyche was callyd Mayster Adam Molaynys, to have take the monster [muster?] at the see syde, he beynge that tyme Byschoppe of Chychester. Ande for his covetysse, as it was reportyde, schippemen put him to dethe, and some mys-a-wysyd men of the sowdyers holpyn welle there-to. And this was done at Portysmouthe [Map].
On 9th January 1450 Bishop Adam Moleyns was lynched by a mob of discontented unpaid soldiers who dragged him from the Royal Garrison Church, Portsmouth and executed him for being a supporter of William "Jackanapes" de la Pole 1st Duke of Suffolk [aged 53] and for the losses in Normandy.
Chronicle of Gregory. The 27th year of Henry VI. extended from the 1st September 1448 to the 31st August 1449. Adam de Moleyns, Bishop of Chichester, was put to death in January 1450, so that the above paragraph might very well have been written not many months after the conclusion of the truce referred to. But unfortunately the truce was not made for anything like a period of four years; it was in fact only for six weeks, from the 10th August to the 20th September 1449. a Adam de Moleyns does not seem to have been ambassador in Scotland, for the negociations took place at Winchester; and most certainly it was not "after that" that he was made Privy Seal and Bishop of Winchester, for he had enjoyed the latter dignity since the year 1445, and the former from the year 1444. I do not see any perfect explanation of this maze of errors; but, if (as is quite possible) Adam de Moleyns was ambassador to Scotland on a former occasion, we may suppose that a line or two may have been omitted by the transcriber just before the words "for four years." If the errors be not due to some such cause as this, the passage must be an ignorant interpolation of later date written from a confused recollection of the facts. There are no other inaccuracies comparable to these in the part we attribute to Gregory.
Chronicle of Gregory. Moreover, in the part which we suppose to be Gregory's, viz. from the nineteenth to the thirtieth year of Henry VI., a minute examination reveals some errors which may have been very well due to the transcriber. In the twenty-third year it is stated that the King made forty-six Knights of the Bath on Thursday the 26 th day of May. This is wrong according to the calendar of the year, and the error is evidently due to a misreading of the numeral "XXvij." as "XXvj." Again, the twenty-sixth year of the reign is altogether omitted - not even the names of the mayor and sheriffs for that year are given. Yet the chronology is not vitiated by this omission as in the case of a similar blunder in the later part. It is an omission pure and simple, and the general account of the events is such as could only have been written by a well-informed contemporary. There is however a piece of erroneous information in the twenty-seventh year, which I think may be best accounted for by supposing a sentence or two to have been omitted by a careless transcriber. It is as follows:
That same year was a treaty of truce taken with the Scots by Master Adam Moleyns for four years, that time he being ambassador into Scotland, and after Privy Seal, and then y-made bishop of Chichester, and within short time after put to death.