Henry Drummond (1786–1860)

Henry Drummond (5 December 1786 – 20 February 1860), English banker, politician and writer, best known as one of the founders of the Catholic Apostolic or Irvingite Church.

He was born at The Grange, near Northington, Hampshire, the eldest son of Henry Drummond, a prominent London banker, his mother being a daughter of the first Viscount Melville. He was educated at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford, but took no degree. His name is permanently connected with the University through the chair of political economy which he founded in 1825.

He entered Parliament in 1810 as the member for Plympton Erle and took an active interest from the first in nearly all departments of politics. Though thoroughly independent and often eccentric in his views, he acted generally with the Conservative Party. His speeches^[1] were often almost inaudible but were generally lucid and informing, and on occasion caustic and severe. he was appointed Sheriff of Surrey for 1826.^[2]

In 1817, he met Robert Haldane at Geneva, and continued his movement against the Socinian tendencies then prevalent in that city. In later years he was intimately associated with the origin and spread of the Catholic Apostolic Church, which Edward Irving and others had founded in 1826. Meetings, moderated by Hugh Boyd M‘Neile, of those who sympathized with some of the views of Irving were held for the study of prophecy at Drummond's seat, Albury Park, in Surrey. He contributed very liberally to the funds of the new church and he became one of its leading office-bearers, being first ordained as Angel of the Congregation in Albury and afterwards called as Apostle for Scotland and the Protestant part of Switzerland and was thus with the other "Apostles" and prophets responsible for its theology. The numerous works he wrote in defence of its distinctive doctrines and practice were generally clear and vigorous, if seldom convincing.

In December 1839, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society ^[3]

He retired in 1843 from his position as senior partner in the Charing Cross bank and published a History of Noble British Families in 1846. From 1847 until his death, he represented West Surrey in parliament. Drummond took a deep interest in religious subjects, and published numerous books and pamphlets on such questions as the interpretation of prophecy, the circulation of the Apocrypha and the principles of Christianity. These attracted considerable attention.

He died in 1860. He had married his cousin Lady Henrietta Hay Drummond, the daughter of Robert Hay-Drummond, 10th Earl of Kinnoull. They had 3 sons, all of whom predeceased him, and two daughters.

There is a street near Melbourne in Carlton North, Victoria named after him in Australia.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press