Thomas Bilson (1546/7-1616) was a Scholar of Winchester College, 1559-62; Fellow of New College, Oxford, 1562-71; Headmaster of Winchester College, 1571-80; Warden of Winchester College, 1580-96; Bishop of Worcester, 1596, and Bishop of Winchester, 1597-1616. Bilson was the first married Warden and his wife was the first female resident in College.

This is oldest known portrait of Bilson, but its rather poor quality suggests that it is copied from a lost original. Ingamells and the ODNB both give a date of 1611 for this portrait, but it is not clear what evidence might support this.

This portrait is listed in the 1734 inventory of the Warden’s Gallery. It may have been among the portraits of past wardens bequeathed by Warden Nicholas in 1707.

Literature: John Ingamells, The English Episcopal Portrait 1559-1835: a Catalogue (London, 1981), p. 123-24 (no. A1), plate 23; William Richardson, ‘Bilson, Thomas (1546/7–1616), bishop of Winchester’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004); P. Quarrie, Winchester College and the King James Bible (Winchester, 2011), p. 22; R. Foster (ed.), 50 Treasures from Winchester College (London, 2019), p. 133

Provenance: Unknown, before 1734

Location: Warden’s Lodgings