William Wake (26 January 1657 – 24 January 1737), was a priest in the Church of England and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1716 until his death in 1737. Wake was born in Blandford Forum, Dorset, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He took orders, and in 1682 went to Paris as chaplain to the ambassador Richard Graham, Viscount Preston (1648-1695). Here he became acquainted with many of the savants of the capital, and was much interested in French clerical affairs. He also collated some Paris manuscripts of the Greek New Testament for John Fell, bishop of Oxford.[1] He returned to England in 1685; in 1688 he became preacher at Gray's Inn, and in 1689 he received a canonry of Christ Church, Oxford. In 1693 he was appointed rector of St James's, Westminster. Ten years later he became Dean of Exeter, and in 1705 he was consecrated bishop of Lincoln. He was translated to the see of Canterbury in 1716 on the death of Thomas Tenison. During 1718 he negotiated with leading French churchmen about a projected union of the Gallican and English churches to resist the claims of Rome.[2] In dealing with nonconformity he was tolerant, and even advocated a revision of the Prayer Book if that would allay the scruples of dissenters. His writings are numerous, the chief being his State of the Church and Clergy of England ... historically deduced (London, 1703). In these writings he produced a massive defence of Anglican Orders and again disproved the Nag's Head Fable by citing a number of documentary sources.[3] He died at his official home, Lambeth Palace. Cyril Jonathan Meyrick Augustine · Laurentius · Mellitus · Justus · Honorius · Deusdedit · Wighard · Theodore · Berhtwald · Tatwine · Nothelm · Cuthbert · Bregowine · Jænberht · Æthelhard · Wulfred · Feologild · Ceolnoth · Æthelred · Plegmund · Athelm · Wulfhelm · Oda · Ælfsige · Byrhthelm · Dunstan · Æthelgar · Sigeric · Ælfric · Ælfheah · Lyfing · Æthelnoth · Eadsige · Robert of Jumièges · Stigand Lanfranc · Anselm · Ralph d'Escures · William de Corbeil · Theobald · Thomas Becket · Roger de Bailleul · Richard · Baldwin · Reginald Fitz Jocelin · Hubert Walter · Reginald · John de Gray · Stephen Langton · Walter d'Eynsham · Richard le Grant · Ralph Neville · John of Sittingbourne · John Blund · Edmund Rich · Boniface · William Chillenden · Robert Kilwardby · Robert Burnell · John Peckham · Robert Winchelsey · Thomas Cobham · Walter Reynolds · Simon Mepeham · John de Stratford · John de Ufford · Thomas Bradwardine · Simon Islip · William Edington · Simon Langham · William Whittlesey · Simon Sudbury · William Courtenay · Thomas Arundel · Roger Walden · Thomas Arundel · Henry Chichele · John Stafford · John Kemp · Thomas Bourchier · John Morton · Thomas Langton · Henry Deane · William Warham · Thomas Cranmer · Reginald Pole Matthew Parker · Edmund Grindal · John Whitgift · Richard Bancroft · George Abbot · William Laud · William Juxon · Gilbert Sheldon · William Sancroft · John Tillotson · Thomas Tenison · William Wake · John Potter · Thomas Herring · Matthew Hutton · Thomas Secker · Frederick Cornwallis · John Moore · Charles Manners-Sutton · William Howley · John Bird Sumner · Charles Thomas Longley · Archibald Campbell Tait · Edward White Benson · Frederick Temple · Randall Thomas Davidson · Cosmo Lang · William Temple · Geoffrey Fisher · Michael Ramsey · Donald Coggan · Robert Runcie · George Carey · Rowan Williams