William Bateman (c. 1298 – 6 January 1355) was a medieval Bishop of Norwich.
Bateman was the son of William Bateman, a Norwich citizen and bailiff who was an M.P.. He was born about 1298. He had two elder brothers, both of whom attained eminence. The first-born, Sir Bartholomew Bateman, of Flixton, Norfolk, was knighted by Edward III for his martial prowess in the French wars. The second became an abbot. William, the third son, received his education in his native city, probably in the school attached to the priory of Norwich. He graduated at Cambridge University in Civil and Canon Law.
In 1349, England was visited by ‘the black death.’ No part of the country suffered more severely than Norfolk and Suffolk, comprising the diocese of Norwich. The mortality among the clergy was frightful. The annual average of institutions to benefices for the five years from the Lady-days of 1344 and 1349 had been 81. During the year ending Lady-day 1350 the number amounted to 831. The number of clergy swept away in the diocese of Norwich alone cannot be set at less than 2,000. The bishop's brother, Sir Bartholomew Bateman, died in this year, and presumably of the plague. During the whole of this time of pestilence, Bishop Bateman remained unflinchingly at his post, never leaving his diocese for a single day, often instituting as many as twenty clergy at once. Till the plague was stayed, he travelled through his diocese, never staying long in one place, and ‘followed by the troops of clergy who came to be instituted to the benefices vacated by death. So many parishes being left without incumbents, there was a fear lest the supply of clergy should be inadequate to the draught upon it. Bishop Bateman applied to Pope Clement VI for direction, who issued a bull authorising him to ordain sixty young men two years under the canonical age, a permission of which he availed himself to a very small extent’.
One important outcome of this appalling calamity was the foundation in the following year, 1350, by Bishop Bateman of the college at Cambridge, to which, as a mark of his special devotion to the blessed Trinity, he gave the name of Trinity Hall. The bishop's object in this foundation, which was designed solely for students of canon and civil law, was to recruit the thinned ranks of the clergy of his diocese with men trained in those studies. For this purpose he became possessor of a hostel which had been purchased by John of Crawden, prior of Ely, as a place to which the monks of his house might retire for study, giving them in exchange six rectories in his diocese. His intention had been to found a master and twenty fellows, besides scholars, who were each to say a prescribed office, ‘De Trinitate,’ on rising and going to bed, always to speak Latin, to dispute three times a week on some point of canon or civil law, and have the Holy Scripture read aloud during meals. The royal charter of foundation bears date 20 November 1350.
Bateman's death in 1355 prevented the full accomplishment of his scheme. At that time the body consisted only of the master, three fellows, and two scholars. A license for building a chapel was given by the bishop of Ely on 30 May 1352, to which the founder bequeathed vestments, jewels, and plate.