Background
Chaderton was born in Lees, or else Chadderton, both near Oldham, Lancashire, England, probably during September 1536, a son of Thomas Chaderton, a Catholic.
Chaderton was born in Lees, or else Chadderton, both near Oldham, Lancashire, England, probably during September 1536, a son of Thomas Chaderton, a Catholic.
Under the tuition of Laurence Vaux, a priest, he became an able scholar. In 1564 he entered Christ"s College, Cambridge, where, after a short time, he formally adopted the reformed doctrines and was in consequence disinherited by his father. In 1567 he was elected a fellow of his college, and subsequently was chosen lecturer of Saint Clement"s Church, Cambridge, where he preached to admiring audiences for many years.
So great was his reputation that when Sir Walter Mildmay founded Emmanuel College in 1584, he chose Chaderton for the first master, and on his expressing some reluctance, declared that if he would not accept the office the foundation should not go on.
He was also among the translators of the King James Version of the Bible. In 1578 he had taken the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, and in 1613 he was created Doctor of Divinity At this period he made provision for twelve fellows and above forty scholars in Emmanuel College.
Fearing that he might have a successor who held Arminian doctrines, he resigned the mastership in favour of John Preston, but survived him, and lived also to see the college presided over successively by William Sancroft and Richard Holdsworth. He died at the age of about 104, preserving his bodily and mental faculties to the education