Charles Abraham (bishop of Wellington)

The Rt Rev Charles John Abraham DD (1814–1903) was the first Anglican Bishop of Wellington. He married Caroline Harriet Palmer who became a noted artist.^[1]

Life

Born in 1814,^[2] the son of the late Captain Abraham, R.N., of Farnborough, Hampshire, he was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge and was later a Fellow.^[3] He was admitted to the degree of B.A. in 1837, M.A. in 1840, B.D. in 1849, and received the degree of D.D. in 1859. He was ordained deacon in 1838, and priest in the following year. He was Assistant Master at Eton until 1850, when he went out to New Zealand to become Master of the English department of St John's College, Auckland.^[4]

In 1853 he was appointed Archdeacon of Waitemata by George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand.^[5] The Bishop had for two or three years been offering to members of the Church of England a Church Constitution, under which they were to govern themselves; and during the two years which followed, while absent in England, he left Archdeacon Abraham to set out its principles. In 1857 a convention of churchmen was held in Auckland, which resulted in the framing of the Constitution now in force. In the following year Archdeacon Abraham, who had also been acting as chaplain to the Bishop, was appointed first Anglican Bishop of Wellington^[6] by John Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishops Wilberforce of Oxford and Lonsdale of Lichfield. When the Maori War broke out by reason of the purchase by the Government of the Waitara block, Bishop Abraham presented a protest to the Governor, claiming for the Maoris as British subjects the right to be heard in the Supreme Court.^[4]

In 1870 he resigned his see, and, returning to England, was made coadjutor bishop to Dr. Selwyn, by then Bishop of Lichfield. This office he held until the death of Bishop Selwyn, in 1878. From 1872 to 1876 he was Prebendary of Bubbenhall in Lichfield Cathedral, and in 1875-6 was rector of Tatenhill, Staffordshire. From 1876 he was Canon and Precentor at the cathedral.^[4]

He married in 1850 Caroline Harriet, daughter of Sir Sir Charles Thomas Palmer, Bart., of Wanlip Hall, Leicestershire, a talented artist^[1] and cousin of the wife of Bishop Selwyn. She died in 1877. Bishop Abraham is the author of "Festival and Lenten Lectures in St. George's Chapel, Windsor," 1848-9 (Parker), and other works.^[4] He died on 4 February 1903.^[7] His son^[8] and grandson^[9] were also bishops.

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