Samuel Wilberforce facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Samuel Wilberforce |
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| Bishop of Winchester | |
Photograph by Julia Margaret Cameron
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| Church | Church of England |
| See | Winchester |
| In Office | 1870–1873 |
| Predecessor | Charles Sumner |
| Successor | Harold Browne |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1828 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 September 1805 Clapham Common, London, England |
| Died | 19 July 1873 (aged 67) Dorking, Surrey, England |
| Previous post | Bishop of Oxford Dean of Westminster |
| Education | Oriel College, Oxford |
Samuel Wilberforce, FRS (7 September 1805 – 19 July 1873) was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce. Known as "Soapy Sam", Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his day. He is now best remembered for his opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution at a debate in 1860.
Contents
Early life
He was born at Clapham Common, London, the fifth child of William Wilberforce, a major campaigner against the slave trade and slavery, and Barbara Spooner; he was the younger brother of Robert Isaac Wilberforce. He had an Anglican education, outside the English public schools. This was the "private and domestic" pattern of instruction chosen for his sons by William Wilberforce. It concentrated on a traditional teaching of the classics, but in a clerical home environment.
Samuel Wilberforce was from 1812 under Stephen Langston, and then Edward Garrard Marsh. With Henry Hoare of Staplehurst and others, he was a pupil in 1819 at Stanstead Park, near Racton in Sussex, of George Hodson, at that time chaplain to Lewis Way. Hodson was tutoring Albert Way, but gathered a small class of six boys, who included also James Thomason. In 1820 Hodson moved to Maisemore near Gloucester as a curate, taking pupils with him. Wilberforce was schooled under Hodson in Gloucestershire until 1822, when he required coaching for university entrance. For that he went, with his younger brother Henry, to Francis Roach Spragge at Bidborough.
In 1823 Wilberforce entered Oriel College, Oxford. In the United Debating Society, the forerunner of the Oxford Union, he demonstrated some Whig views. His friends included William Ewart Gladstone and Henry Edward Manning, and were nicknamed the "Bethel Union" for their religiosity. Wilberforce's student recreations included riding and hunting. He graduated in 1826, taking a first-class degree in mathematics and a second in classics.
Wilberforce in late 1826 tried and failed for a fellowship at Balliol College. He spent the summer and autumn of 1827 touring the continent. He married Emily Sargent, daughter of the rector of East Lavington, West Sussex in 1828. After his marriage a college fellowship was no longer possible. He was ordained deacon in the Church of England. In 1829 he was ordained priest and appointed curate at Checkendon, near Henley-on-Thames.
Career
In 1830, Wilberforce was presented by Charles Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, to the rectory of St Mary's Church, Brighstone, in the Isle of Wight. In November 1839 he was installed archdeacon of Surrey, in August 1840 he was collated canon of Winchester, and in October he accepted the rectory of Alverstoke.
In January 1841, Wilberforce was made chaplain to Prince Albert, an appointment he owed to an anti-slavery speech he had made some months previously. He was chosen as that year's Bampton lecturer, but his wife Emily died on 10 March, and he withdrew. In October 1843, he was appointed by the Archbishop of York to be sub-almoner to the Queen. Later, his part in the revival of the powers of Convocation lessened his influence at court.
In March 1845 Wilberforce accepted the position of Dean of Westminster and, in October the same year, was appointed as the Bishop of Oxford by Sir Robert Peel. This year, also, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He set up a Diocesan Church Building Fund. This gave small grants intended to act as a lever for more substantial funding from other sources, a successful fundraising approach. In 1850 Wilberforce appointed George Edmund Street as architect to the diocese of Oxford. Street built or improved 113 churches there during his tenure. In 1854, Wilberforce opened a theological college at Cuddesdon, now known as Ripon College Cuddesdon, which later was the subject of some controversy over its alleged Romanist tendencies.
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After twenty-four years in the diocese of Oxford, Wilberforce was translated by Gladstone to the bishopric of Winchester in 1869.
Reputation
The publication of Universalis Ecclesiae, the papal bull in 1850 re-establishing a Roman Catholic hierarchy in England, brought the High Church party, of whom Wilberforce had become a prominent member, into temporary disrepute. The secession to Catholicism of his brother-in-law Manning, and then of his brothers, as well as his only daughter and his son-in-law, brought him under suspicion.
"Soapy Sam" may have been a reference to Wilberforce's characteristic hand-washing gesture, captured in the Vanity Fair cartoon by "Ape" (illustration, right). The nickname may also derive from a comment by Benjamin Disraeli that the bishop's manner was "unctuous, oleaginous, saponaceous".
Wilberforce has been called the "bishop of society"; but society occupied only a fraction of his time. In the House of Lords he took a prominent part in the discussion of social and ecclesiastical questions.
Death
Wilberforce died from a riding accident on 19 July 1873, near Abinger. He had been on the way to visit Gladstone at Holmbury St Mary, with Lord Granville. He was buried at East Lavington with his wife and her sister, the wife of Manning.
Works
Wilberforce published:
- A tract on tithes (1831), "to correct the prejudices of the lower order of farmers".
- A collection of hymns for use in his parish (1832), which had a more general circulation
- Note Book of a Country Clergyman, stories
- The Apostolical Ministry, sermon.
- Letters and Journals (1837) of Henry Martyn, the Anglican missionary.
- Life (1838) of his father William Wilberforce published, with his elder brother Robert Wilberforce.
- Eucharistica (1839, editor) from the old English divines.
- Agathos and other Sunday Stories (1839)
- University Sermons (1839)
- Correspondence (1840) of William Wilberforce
- Rocky Island and other Parables (1840)
- A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America (1844)
- Heroes of Hebrew History (1870), originally contributed to Good Words.
There were several volumes of his sermons. He left a diary, and its content is considered influenced in parts by the editorial work he did on his father's papers, while also revealing of his own emotional life. The anonymous Britannica 1911 author wrote of it that His diary reveals a tender and devout private life which has been overlooked by those who have only considered the versatile facility and persuasive expediency that marked the successful public career of the bishop, and perhaps earned him the sobriquet of "Soapy Sam".
Legacy
Wilberforce was the patron of Philip Reginald Egerton, who founded Bloxham School in Oxfordshire. A boarding house at the school is named after Wilberforce. Together with his brother Robert, he joined the Canterbury Association on 27 March 1848. He resigned from the Canterbury Association on 14 March 1849. The Wilberforce River in New Zealand was named for them.
Family
Wilberforce married on 11 June 1828 Emily Sargent (1807–1841), daughter of John Sargent, and his wife Mary Smith, daughter of Abel Smith. They had five children who survived early childhood, one daughter and four sons.
- Emily Charlotte (1830–1917), the daughter, married J. Henry Pye. Pye was an Anglican priest: the couple converted to Catholicism in 1868.
- Herbert William Wilberforce (1833–1856), a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. He died at Torquay after duties in the Baltic Sea.
- Reginald Wilberforce (1838–1914), army officer. He was author of An Unrecorded Chapter of the Indian Mutiny (1894), a work criticised by fellow officers of the 52nd Foot for inaccuracy. Reginald was grandfather (through his fourth son, Samuel (Samuel Wilberforce (judge)) to Richard Lord Wilberforce, a Lord of Appeal.
- Ernest Wilberforce (1840–1908), Bishop of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1882 to 1895, and Bishop of Chichester from 1895 till his death.
- Basil Wilberforce (1841–1916), appointed canon residentiary of Westminster in 1894, chaplain of the House of Commons in 1896 and Archdeacon of Westminster in 1900; he published volumes of sermons.
In literature
Wilberforce appears, caricatured, in Anthony Trollope's novel The Warden (1855), where he is portrayed as the third child of the Archdeacon, Dr Grantly, who is named Samuel and nicknamed Soapy, and is engaging and ingratiating but not to be trusted.
