Sometimes it was given to deans alone or to prebendaries in the parishes whence they derived their prebends.
For his son, before he was eighteen years old, he procured a deanery, four archdeaconries, five prebends and a chancellorship, and he sought to thrust him into the bishopric of Durham.
He was originally a clerk in orders, and held several prebends; but in 1096 he joined the first crusade, and accompanied his brother Godfrey as far as Heraclea in Asia Minor.
He was titular archbishop of Apamea in Syria, and held several rich prebends in Italy.
The result was the rapid promotion of Williams in the church; he obtained several livings besides prebends at Hereford, Lincoln and Peterborough.