Phineas Hodson

Phineas Hodson (died before 28 November 1646) was Chancellor of York from 1611 to 1646. Hodson lived during a period of religious factionalism in Britain; as a prebendary in the Church of England he confronted the proliferation of dissenting sects, the agitations of England's Catholics, and — with the rise of Parliament after the death of James I — political attacks on the power of the bishopric. Hodson fell foul of post-Jacobean Parliamentary hostility to the established church and was impeached, but remained chancellor of York until his death.

Nonconformists and Catholics

Hodson was a doctor of divinity. From 1579 to 1615 he held the advowson — the right to present a benefice — of Normanby parish in north Yorkshire. He was a trusted lieutenant of Tobias Matthew, Archbishop of York; in 1617 Matthew delegated Hodson to advise Roger Brearley, who had founded the Grindletonian nonconformist sect and been accused of heresy as a result, on how he might reconcile with the Church of England. At a time when the imprisonment of many Catholics had raised fears that England's prisons might become a hotbed of anti-establishment activity, Hodson contributed £25 a year for the provision of Protestant worship in York Castle.