Henry Bathurst (bishop)

Henry Bathurst (1744–1837) was an English churchman, a prominent Whig and bishop of Norwich.

Life

He was the seventh son of Benjamin Bathurst, younger brother of Allen Bathurst, 1st Earl Bathurst, born at Brackley, Northamptonshire, on 16 October 1744. He was educated at Winchester School, and New College, Oxford. He became rector of Witchingham in Norfolk; in 1775 was made canon of Christ Church, Oxford; and in 1795 prebendary of Durham Cathedral.

In 1805, on the translation of Charles Manners-Sutton to Canterbury, he was consecrated bishop of Norwich. Bathurst died in London, on 5 April 1837, and was buried at Great Malvern. For many he years was considered to be the only "liberal" bishop in the House of Lords, and he supported Catholic emancipation. In 1835, when over ninety years of age, he went to the house to vote in support of Lord Melbourne's government.

Family

The bishop married a daughter of Charles Coote, dean of Kilfenora, and brother of Sir Eyre Coote. The union produced eight sons and three daughters.^[1] His eldest son, Henry Bathurst, was fellow of New College, Oxford, became chancellor of the church of Norwich in 1805; held the rectories of Oby (1806), North Creake (1809), and Hollesley (1828); and was appointed archdeacon of Norwich in 1814. He wrote Memoirs of the late Dr. Henry Bathurst, Lord Bishop of Norwich, 1837; he issued in 1842 a supplement, with additional letters of his father, entitled An Easter Offering for the Whigs . . . being a Supplement to the Memoirs of the late Bishop of Norwich, 1842, in which he concentrated criticism on the injustice of the Whig party in refusing to promote his father to a richer see. Archdeacon Bathurst died 10 September 1844.

The bishop's third son, Benjamin Bathurst went missing in 1809 in Germany, and is believed to have been murdered; his elder daughter, Tryphena Bathurst (Mrs. Thistlethwayte), rewrote her father's memoirs from her eldest brother's papers. His youngest daughter Caroline de Crespigny (1797-1861) was a poet and for many years a close confidante of Shelley's cousin and biographer Thomas Medwin.^[2]

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Bathurst, Henry (1744-1837)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.