Much obscurity surrounds the family background and early life of William Tyndale. The Tudor chronicler Edward Hall said that he came from 'about the borders of Wales' which is far from being a precise location. The many who have researched William's family over the years have favoured the idea that he came from Gloucestershire. The village of Stinchcombe was home to various people using the Hychyns and Tyndale names which makes it seems likely that his roots were there. In the registers of the University of Oxford, and when ordained to various orders of ministry, he used the name Hychyns, and later sometimes gave this as an alternative to Tyndale. In the ordination registers he seems to be linked with the Hereford diocese, in which Gloucestershire west of the Severn then lay. It may be the case that he came of a family that had members on both sides of the river.

Tyndale's date of birth is unknown but is likely to have been in the period 1491-1494. At some point in the first decade of the sixteenth century he went to study at Oxford, at Magdalen Hall which later evolved into the present Hertford College. He is recorded as receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1512. Three years later he was both ordained priest in London and awarded his Master of Arts degree at Oxford. The next few years are something of a mystery.

The fact of his being ordained in London might suggest that he had been offered a post there, or at least was seeking one. If so there does not seem to be any record surviving of such an appointment. Possibly he was the William Tyndale who is recorded in these years as a chantry priest in Gloucestershire, first at Frampton on Severn and then at Breadstone. According to the register of the Bishop of Worcester this man was dead by 1523 but this could be a clerical error or these references could be to two separate individuals. John Foxe (1517-1587) in his Acts and Monuments, commonly called the Book of Martyrs, placed him at Cambridge for several years. Again this is possible but seemingly unrecorded in the university archives.

Foxe did manage to obtain a fairly detailed account of the years of Tyndale's life from 1522 to 1524. Foxe tells that he was employed by a Gloucestershire man, Sir John Walsh, at his home of Little Sodbury Manor. Walsh was a notable local figure with several young children, the eldest probably no more than four years of age, to whom it is said Tyndale acted as tutor. The role was probably no onerous task and was a way in which the young man could carry on his studies. In this period many scholars who did not hold university appointments looked to well off patrons to give them material support. John Walsh was just the first of several patrons Tyndale was to attract over the following years. It may be that he was known to, or introduced to, Sir John through his Gloucestershire background and contacts, possibly through a brother Edward who was a significant figure in the area.

© Brian Buxton 2013