John Medley

Medley, John

 John Medley, bishop (b at Chelsea, Eng 19 Dec 1804; d at Fredericton 9 Sept 1892). As the first Anglican bishop of Fredericton, Medley spent 47 years building up the church physically and spiritually. Educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and friend of Edmund Pusey, he was active in the English ecclesiological movement, which stressed the improvement of church music and architecture. A known Tractarian, his High Church sympathies were viewed with suspicion by his LOYALIST congregation. Consecrated bishop of Fredericton in 1845, he embarked on a series of annual parish visitations and dedicated himself to building a cathedral at Fredericton and developing a cathedral choir school. The cathedral, designed by architect Frank Wills with furnishing designed by William Butterfield, was consecrated in 1853. Medley supported free pews, free-will offerings and the development of diocesan synods. He was the author of Hymns for Public Worship in the Diocese of Fredericton (1855, 1863, 1870).