Part 7 (2/2)

=John Towers= (1638-1649) was one of the King's chaplains. He was promoted from the Deanery. He protested, with eleven other bishops, against the opposition that was made by the Parliamentary party to their taking their seats in the House of Lords, in which protest it was declared that all laws, orders, votes, or resolutions, were in themselves null and of none effect, which in their absence from Dec.

27th 1641, had been pa.s.sed, or should afterwards be pa.s.sed, during the time of their enforced absence. For this they were committed to the Tower, and kept there four or five months. Being set free he was allowed to return to Peterborough, but his revenues were taken away. Living here in a state of continual alarm, he betook himself to the king's forces at Oxford, where he remained until the surrender of the place. Coming back here in 1646 his health failed, and he died about three weeks before the king was beheaded. He was buried in the choir.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Details of Chasuble on Abbot's Tomb.]

No successor was appointed until the Restoration. =Benjamin Laney= (1660-1663) was then made Bishop. He was Dean of Rochester, and had been Master of Pembroke, Cambridge. He was translated to Lincoln in 1663, and to Ely in 1667. He died in 1675, and is buried at Lambeth.

=Joseph Henshaw= (1663-1679) was Dean of Chichester. He died suddenly on March 9, 1679, on his return from attending service at Westminster Abbey. He was buried at East Lavant in Suss.e.x, where he had been rector.

=William Lloyd= (1679-1685) was translated from Llandaff, and was further translated to Norwich in 1685. He was deprived of his see as a Nonjuror in 1691. He lived at Hammersmith till his death in 1710. He was the last survivor of the seven deprived bishops. It is singular that his namesake, William Lloyd, bishop of S. Asaph, should have been one of the seven bishops committed to the Tower by King James II. in 1688; but he had no scruples about taking the oaths to the new sovereigns, and became afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, and ultimately of Worcester.

=Thomas White= (1685-1691) was one of the seven committed to the Tower, and also one of the seven deprived in 1691 as Nonjurors. He attended Sir John Fenwick on the scaffold. This bishop, with his predecessor, Bishop Lloyd, the deprived Bishop of Norwich, were two of the consecrators of the Nonjuring Bishops, Hickes and Wagstaffe. There were really ten bishops (including Archbishop Sancroft) who refused the oaths to William and Mary; but the Bishops of Worcester, Chichester, and Chester died before the time fixed for the deprivation. Bishop White lived in retirement after he left his diocese. He died in 1698, and his funeral is mentioned in Evelyn's _Diary_, under date June 5th: ”Dr White, late Bishop of Peterborough, who had been deprived for not complying with Government, was buried in St Gregory's churchyard or vault, at St Paul's. His hea.r.s.e was accompanied by two Nonjuror bishops, Dr. Turner of Ely, and Dr. Lloyd, with forty Nonjuror clergymen, who could not stay the office of the burial, because the Dean of St Paul's had appointed a conforming minister to read the office, at which all much wondered, there being nothing in that office which mentioned the present king.”

Lathbury remarks on this retirement from the grave, that it was a singular circ.u.mstance, and contrary to the practice of the Nonjurors in many other cases.

=Richard c.u.mberland= (1691-1718) had a reputation as a philosophical writer. The only memoir of him is to be found in the preface to _Sanchoniathon's History_,[37] a posthumous work, in which his chaplain (and son-in-law) thus describes his appointment:--”The king was told that Dr c.u.mberland was the fittest man he could nominate to the bishopric of Peterborough. Thus a private country clergyman, without posting to Court--a place he had rarely seen--without suing to great men, without taking the least step towards soliciting for it, was pitched upon to fill a great trust, only because he was fittest for it.

He walked after his usual manner on a post-day to the coffee-house, and read in the newspaper that one Dr c.u.mberland of Stamford was named to the bishopric of Peterborough, a greater surprise to himself than to anybody else.” His chaplain speaks of the bishop's character, zeal, and learning in terms of unqualified praise. One of the bishop's sons, Richard, was Archdeacon of Northampton, and father of Denison c.u.mberland, Bishop of Clonfert and of Kilmore. This last named married a daughter of Dr Bentley, the famous Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and one of their sons was Richard c.u.mberland, the dramatist. Bishop Richard c.u.mberland is buried in the Cathedral, and a tablet to his memory remains in the New Building.

=White Kennett= (1718-1728) had been Dean. He was a most industrious writer, many of his works, which are upwards of fifty in number, being most laborious. His ma.n.u.script collections in the British Museum are also of great value. He is best known from his antiquarian tastes and studies, and for having directed the attention of his clergy to the value of parish registers. It would seem that before his time no transcripts of parish registers were ever sent to the Bishop's Registry at Peterborough. The earliest transcripts now to be found date only from the beginning of his episcopate, except that, in a few instances, some inc.u.mbents appear to have sent the entries for six or eight years previously. Notwithstanding the efficiency of his predecessor he ”found the irregularities of the diocese great and many.” The Cathedral service was negligently conducted, many clergy were non-resident, some small benefices had been left unfilled. Many other abuses were discovered from time to time. Bishop Kennett was most active and conscientious in administering his office, and thoroughly re-organised the diocese; but his strong political partisans.h.i.+p made for him a great number of enemies. The enmity he raised came to a culminating point while he was still dean. An altar-piece representing the Last Supper had been painted for Whitechapel Church.[38] In this Judas was painted turning round to the spectator, and was intended to represent Kennett. We do not know whether the likeness in itself was sufficiently good to be recognised, but the intention was sufficiently indicated by a black patch in the centre of the forehead, just under the wig. Kennett always wore such a patch, to hide a scar which had remained after being trepanned in early manhood. Judas is, moreover, represented as clean-shaven, being the only figure so drawn except the Evangelist S.

John. Great scandal and excitement were caused by this picture, and it was removed. It ultimately found a home at S. Albans Abbey, where it may still be seen (patch and all), but no longer in the position it once occupied over the high altar. Bishop Kennett died in 1728, and is buried in the New Building.

=Robert Clavering= (1728-1747) was consecrated Bishop of Llandaff in 1725, and translated to Peterborough in 1728. He is buried here, but no memorial exists.

=John Thomas= (1747-1757) was Canon of S. Paul's. He was translated to Sarum in 1757, and to Winchester in 1761. He was preceptor to Prince George, afterwards King George III., who used to visit him at Farnham Castle. In the early part of his episcopate he had a namesake on the bench, John Thomas, formerly Dean of Peterborough, who was made Bishop of Lincoln in 1744, and of Sarum in 1761; and during the latter part another namesake, John Thomas, Bishop of Rochester from 1775 to 1793.

Bishop Thomas of Winchester died in 1781, in his 85th year, and is buried in his cathedral.

=Richard Terrick= (1757-1764) was Canon of S. Paul's. He was translated to London in 1764, and died in 1777.

=Robert Lamb= (1764-1769) had been Dean. He is buried at Hatfield, where he had been rector.

=John Hinchcliffe= (1769-1794) is an instance of a man, rising from an inferior station to positions of the greatest eminence. His father was a stable-master in London. Proceeding from Westminster School to Trinity College, Cambridge, he obtained a Fellows.h.i.+p there. He afterwards, through a gentleman of wealth to whom he was tutor, secured some very influential friends, and became Head Master of Westminster School, Chaplain to the King, and Master of Trinity. This last appointment he continued to hold with his bishopric until 1789, when he was made Dean of Durham. A memoir published at the time of his death describes him as learned, a.s.siduous in his duties, obliging in his manners, and honest and sincere in his religious and political principles. He died in 1794, and is buried in the cathedral.

=Spencer Madan= (1794-1813) was a prebendary and king's chaplain, and first cousin to the poet Cowper. He came back to Peterborough from Bristol, to which see he was consecrated in 1792. He is buried in the New Building.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Details of Albs on Abbots' Tombs.]

=John Parsons= (1813-1819) was Master of Balliol and Dean of Bristol. He was a man of great mark and influence at Oxford, where he died and was buried. There is a monument to him in the chapel of Balliol.

=Herbert Marsh= (1819-1839) was the author of many controversial works.

He was translated to this see from Llandaff, where he had been bishop since 1816. He was buried in the New Building--the last bishop interred in the cathedral.

=George Davys= (1839-1864) was Dean of Chester, and had been preceptor to Queen Victoria. He was buried in the Cathedral Yard; the Queen sent one of her carriages with servants in state liveries to attend the funeral as a mark of her affection and esteem.

=Francis Jeune= (1864-1868) had been Dean of Jersey, Master of Pembroke, Oxford, and Dean of Lincoln. His eldest son was the well-known judge.

Bishop Jeune is buried in the Cathedral Yard.

<script>