Robert John Eden, 3rd Baron Auckland (10 July 1799 – 25 April 1870), styled The Honourable from birth until 1849, was Bishop of Bath and Wells.
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Born at Eden Farm, Beckenham, Kent, he was third son of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland and his wife Eleanor, oldest daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet.[1] His older brother was George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, his uncles were Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet and Morton Eden, 1st Baron Henley. Eden was sent to Eton College in 1814 and went then to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he proceeded Master of Arts five years later.[2] In 1847, he received a Bachelor of Divinity and a Doctor of Divinity by the University of Cambridge.[2] When his brother George died in 1849, he succeeded him not in the earldom, however in the barony, conferred upon their father.
Eden was ordained in 1822 and was appointed rector of Eyam in Derbyshire in the next year.[1] He was transferred to Hertingfordbury, near Hertford in 1825, a post he held for a decade.[1] Subsequently, Eden served as vicar of Battersea until 1847.[1] He was likewise nominated chaplain to King William IV in 1831 and after the latter's death in 1837 to Queen Victoria for the next ten years. On 23 May 1847, Eden was consecrated Bishop of Sodor and Man, and installed at Castletown on 29 June. He was translated to the see of Bath and Wells on 2 June 1854, which he held until his resignation on 6 September 1869.
He was the author of A Reply to a Letter to the Bishop of Bath and Wells on the subject of the recent Restoration of the Parish Church of Kingsbury Episcopi, by George Parsons (1854), Charges of the Bishop of Bath and Wells (3 vols. 1855, 1858, and 1861), and The Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland, edited by the Bishop of Bath and Wells (1860).
He was moderate in his views, but inclining to the high church school.
He married, on 15 September 1825, Mary, eldest daughter of Francis Edward Hurt of Alderwasley, Derbyshire, by whom he had five sons and five daughters. She died on 25 November 1872. Eden died at the Bishop's Palace, Wells on 25 April 1870, and was buried in the Palm churchyard, near Wells Cathedral, four days later. His third son was Ashley was a diplomat.
| Church of England titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard Bagot |
Bishop of Bath and Wells 1854 –1869 |
Succeeded by Arthur Charles Hervey |
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by George Eden |
Baron Auckland 1849–1870 |
Succeeded by William George Eden |