John Atherton (1598 – 5 December 1640) was the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore in the Church of Ireland. He and John Childe (his steward and tithe proctor) were both tried and executed for buggery in 1640.
Life and death
Early life and education
Atherton was born in 1598 in Somerset, England. His father, also named John, was a parson and rector of Bawdrip. The younger Atherton studied at the University of Oxford and joined the ranks of the Anglican clergy, serving as rector of Huish Champflower in Somerset.
Career in the Anglican clergy
In 1630, Atherton became prebendary of the Church of St John the Evangelist in Dublin, as well as chancellor of the Diocese of Killaloe. He became chancellor of Christ Church Cathedral in 1634 and rector of Killaban and Ballintubride in 1635.
Downfall
In 1640 Atherton was accused of buggery with a man, John Childe, his steward and tithe proctor. Even though his fellow clerics attempted to prevent his trial to save the reputation of his church, they were the first to have been tried under the law that Atherton himself had helped to institute. after reading the morning service for his cellmates. Reportedly, he confessed the crime to the priest ministering to him immediately before his execution, although he had proclaimed his innocence before that and kept doing so during the execution.
Posthumous accusations of sexual wrongdoing also include allegations of "incest" with his sister-in-law, and infanticide of the resultant child, as well as zoophilia with cattle. However, these allegations began to be circulated several months after his death in an anonymous pamphlet,
Legends
A legend had him linked to the Old Mother Leakey, a Somerset ghost accused of shipwrecking.
Another legend describes the house of Butler, the lawyer who allegedly led the conspiracy against Atherton, as being haunted by the ghost of the bishop.