William Lyon (bishop)

William Lyon (died 1617) was the English-born bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross.

After being educated at Oxford, probably either at Oriel College or St John's College, Oxford he went to Ireland about 1570. He became vicar of Naas in 1573, and in 1580 Elizabeth I gave him the additional vicarage of Bodenstown in County Kildare. In 1577 he had license to enjoy the profits of his parish even when absent in England; but he seems to have generally resided in Ireland. When Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton assumed the Irish government in 1580, Lyon was appointed his chaplain, and in 1582 he became the first Protestant bishop of Ross, in the province of Munster.

Lyon's impact was such that the mayor of Cork almost immediately petitioned Francis Walsingham to make him bishop of Cork and Cloyne. This was done temporarily in 1584, and in 1587 the three sees were united by patent. An Observantine Franciscan had been provided to Ross by the pope around 1580. Lyon had feared replacement, but Sir Henry Wallop, who was then in Munster, strongly supported him. The bishop went to Kinsale, inquiring into the rumours which preceded the Spanish Armada, and for years afterwards he kept an eye on those who were in correspondence with Spain. In 1589 he warned the government against promoting Thomas Wetherhead, who had been guilty of simony: but without effect since Wetherhead was made Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, and continued his malpractices.

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