MARDYKE, John (1693 - 1759), bishop of Mettlen

John Mardyke was born on July 1, 1693 at Valenanclaran, Ada Seanidh colony, the second son of William Mardyke the elder (1665 - 1725), an officer and local landowner, and Mary Paterson (1670? - 1732). He was sent to the Lordell School, a Nyssic religious institution in Baranor colony, in 1709. After his graduation with a theology degree in 1714, he became a rector for the bishop of Seavale. In 1720, Mardyke was sent to Mettlen, where he was assigned by Bishop Richard Chantelle to keep the church books of the province. He was raised to a vicarage in 1725, and ordained minister in 1728.

Mardyke inherited over £6,000 from his father in 1725. He bought Penhill House, where his father had died, from his eldest brother William (1690 - 1754), and spent considerable sums to refurbish it and add gardens and a chapel. In 1731, Mardyke married Janet Erroll (b. 1710), the niece of royal governor Charles Erroll. The marriage allowed Mardyke access to the corridors of power in New Nolon. From 1732 to 1737, he served as principal rector to the Archbishop of New Nolon, before retiring from church affairs at the age of forty-four to pursue agriculture. Mardyke’s career as a gentleman farmer was hampered by a bad harvest in 1738, and a declining colonial economy ensured that most of his crops were rotting in the fields by 1740. On October 18, 1741, Mardyke accepted an appointment by Governor Erroll to be bishop of Mettlen; he was inaugurated the following month.

The new bishop’s abrupt return to ecclesiastical affairs won him few friends among the Adashawnee church hierarchy. Mardyke had to contend with enemies both in Mettlen and in the archbishop’s palace in New Nolon. In 1747, for his loyal support of the Crown during revolutionary tensions, he was granted a knighthood and the right to appoint all vicars and ministers within Mettlen diocese, ensuring his hold on power. In 1748, Mardyke’s younger brother James (1698 - 1771) became bishop of Kingsford. With the outbreak of the Almorean Revolution the following year, both brothers refused to support the Free Congress, and maintained loyalty to the Crown. In January 1750, however, Mardyke came to an agreement with the Free Congress, and pledged his support to the cause of independence in return for political protection. In doing so, Mardyke presented a sharp contrast to his younger brother, who was deprived of his bishopric at the end of the year for continued resistance.

After Mettlen was burned by Noronnican forces in 1752, Mardyke lived in a luxurious apartment in New Nolon. After his eldest brother’s death in 1754, he administered the Roxton estates for his nephew Richard, who was deployed as an officer. After the revolutionary cause suffered severe setbacks in 1755, Mardyke was forced to flee north into Baranor. After reaching a tentative agreement with the Crown, he returned to Mettlen in March 1757 and began once more to actively exercise his duties as bishop. In his last years, Mardyke was troubled by the death of his wife Janet, and by the general poverty of his diocese after the ravages of the Revolution. At Christmas 1758, the bishop was thrown from his horse in the courtyard of his Mettlen residence. Although Mardyke initially recovered, his health was broken and he died in Mettlen on April 9, 1759, of a “burst vein”, aged sixty-five.

By his wife Janet, Mardyke had three children, Charles (1734 - 1799), Margaret (1735 - 1818), and John (1742 - 1814).