The following information has been extracted from Newcourt's Repertorium Vols 1 and 2, on the assumption that the Robert Wylly who served as Rector of St Mary's, Colchester resigned from that benefice rather than vacating it through death, and is the same Robert Wylly who served as Rector of Thorley.
Robert Wylly was instituted as Vicar of St Mary's, Henham in Essex in December 1464. The following month, on 2 January 1465, he was collated to the Rectory of St Mary's, Colchester. He resigned from Henham at that time or shortly afterwards, and definitely before 3 April of that year when he was succeeded as Vicar there by Thomas Belson.
St Mary's, Colchester, was known as the Church of St Mary-at-the-Walls, as it was immediately adjacent to the city wall. It was to be badly damaged during the siege of Colchester (13 June - 27 August 1648), when it was used as a gun emplacement by Royalists during the Civil War. The tower of the Norman Church survived and remains to this day, but the rest was destroyed and rebuilt in 1713-14. In 1978 the Church was declared redundant, and in 1980 reopened as Colchester Arts Centre.
Robert was succeeded as Rector at St Mary's by William Ketill on 10 January 1468. Some years later, on 8 October 1474, he was collated to the Rectory of Thorley. He remained at Thorley until his death, when he was succeeded as Rector on 22 October 1493 by Thomas, Bishop of Pavada, a Suffragen Bishop in the diocese of London.
January 2012
Philip Hargrave