Born: Edmund Guest was born in 1514 in Northallerton. He was the son of Thomas Geste from Worcestershire.
Educated: He was well educated, attending York grammar school, Eton College and King’s College, Cambridge.
Married: Edmund Guest never married.
Family:
Home: During the reign of the Catholic Mary I, Guest, who was strongly Protestant, moved from place to place to avoid arrest. For the last six years of his life he lived in Salisbury.
Known for: Edmund Guest was one of the first generation of Protestant Bishops who came to office during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He became known for his Protestant views as early as the 1540s, notably during the reign of Edward VI. In 1548 he published “A Treatise Against the Privy Mass” in which he rejected the Catholic doctrine of the mass. This made him one of the country’s leading Protestants and as such he took an active role in the revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 1552. In 1560 was appointed Bishop of Rochester and for a time he served as lord almoner to Queen Elizabeth I. Bishop Guest was one of the men who produced the Bishops’ Bible in 1568. In 1571 he was translated to Salisbury where he remained as bishop until his death,
Died: Edmund Guest died at Salisbury on 28th February 1577 and was buried in the cathedral.
Further Information: “The History and Antiquities of Northallerton” C.J.Davison Ingledew (1863)
“The Life and Character of Edmund Geste, S.T.P.” Henry G.Dugdale (1840)