John Alcock ( – 1 October 1500) was an English churchman, bishop and Lord Chancellor.
Biography
Alcock was born at Beverley in Yorkshire, son of Sir William Alcock, Burgess of Kingston upon Hull, and was educated at Beverley Grammar School and the University of Cambridge. In 1461 he was made dean of St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster,<!--not dean of Westminster Abbey, which had no dean until 1540--> and his subsequent promotion was rapid in both church and state. In the following year he was made Master of the Rolls, and in 1470 was sent as ambassador to the Crown Court of Castile. He was nominated to the see of Rochester on 8 January 1472, was consecrated Bishop of Rochester on 15 March and was successively translated to the see of Worcester on 15 July 1476 and the see of Ely on 6 October 1486. He was the first president of the Council of the Marches in Wales from 1473 to 1500. He twice held the office of Lord Chancellor, once from 10 June 1475 to 28 September 1475 (during the absence of the Lord Chancellor Thomas Rotheram and then again from 7 October 1485 to 6 March 1487. Gallicontus Johannis Alcock episcopi Eliensis ad frates suos curatas in sinodo apud Barnwell (1498), a good specimen of early English printing and quaint illustrations; The Castle of Labour, translated from the French (1536), and various other tracts and homilies.