William Bedell

William Bedell was buried in the south transept of Westminster Abbey near Chaucer's tomb. His gravestone no longers exists but the inscription was recorded in William Camden's guidebook to the Abbey published in 1600:

Here lieth buried William Bedell Esquier late Treasurer to my Lorde Cardinall Archbishope of Yorke and Chancellor of England, and Cicely his wife, which William deceased the 3 of July 1518

William was a trusted official in the household of Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry VII who died in 1509) and her third husband Sir Henry Stafford and some of his accounts survive in the Abbey archives. In about 1506 he married Cecily Crathorne and they leased a house from the Abbey. She was still alive in 1521 as she was granted a lease in January of that year. He was bailiff of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire and possibly bailiff of Kimbolton in Huntingdon. The Archbishop of York he served was Thomas Wolsey. In his will he attributed all his wealth to Lady Margaret.