Edmund Gibson (16696 September 1748) was a British

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

who served as

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...

and

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, jurist, and

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic si ...

Early life and career

He was born in Bampton,

Westmorland Westmorland (, formerly also spelt ''Westmoreland'';R. Wilkinson The British Isles, Sheet The British IslesVision of Britain/ref> is a historic county in North West England spanning the southern Lake District and the northern Dales. It had an ...

. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

. Shortly after

Thomas Tenison Thomas Tenison (29 September 163614 December 1715) was an English church leader, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1694 until his death. During his primacy, he crowned two British monarchs. Life He was born at Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, the son a ...

's elevation to the

see of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...

in 1694 Gibson was appointed chaplain and librarian to the archbishop, and in 1703 and 1710 respectively he became rector of

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area e ...

and

archdeacon of Surrey The Archdeaconry of Surrey is the ecclesiastical officer in charge of the archdeaconry of Surrey, a subdivision of the Church of England Diocese of Guildford in the Province of Canterbury. History The whole archdeaconry was historically in the ...

Episcopal career

In 1716 Gibson was presented to the see of Lincoln, whence he was in 1723 translated to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. For twenty-five years he exercised influence, being consulted by Sir Robert Walpole on ecclesiastical affairs. While a conservative in church politics, and opposed to

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

, he was no persecutor, and indeed broke with Walpole on the Quakers' Relief Bill of 1736. He exercised oversight over the morals of his diocese; and his denunciation of the masquerades which were popular at court finally lost him the royal favour. He served as a founding governor of a charity called the

Foundling Hospital The Foundling Hospital in London, England, was founded in 1739 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word " hospita ...

. His endorsement can be seen as significant since the Foundling Hospital, created by

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, b ...

, was the nation's first non-church initiated institution to target this sort of social ill. Gibson died in 1748, and is buried at

All Saints Church, Fulham All Saints' Church is the ancient parish church of Fulham, in the County of Middlesex, pre-dating the Reformation. It is now an Anglican church in Fulham, London, sited close to the River Thames, beside the northern approach to Putney Brid ...

, London.

Works

In 1692 Gibson published an edition of the '' Saxon Chronicle'' with a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

translation, indices and notes, and later a similar translation of the Lindsey Chronicle. These were followed in 1693 by an annotated edition of the ''De institutione oratoria'' of

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...

, and in 1695 by a translation of

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Ann ...

's ''Britannia'', with additions and improvements, for which he recruited a team of antiquaries including

Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd FRS (; occasionally written Llwyd in line with modern Welsh orthography, 1660 – 30 June 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also named in a Latinate form as Eduardus Luidius. Life ...

, William Lloyd and John Smith. In the discussions which arose during the reigns of

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and Anne relative to the rights and privileges of the

Convocation A convocation (from the Latin '' convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Greek ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose, mostly ecclesiastical or academic. In a ...

, Gibson took a very active part, and in a series of pamphlets warmly argued for the right of the archbishop to continue or prorogue even the lower house of that assembly. The controversy suggested to him the idea of those researches which resulted in the ''Codex juris ecclesiastici Anglicani'', published in two volumes folio in 1713, a work which discusses more learnedly and comprehensively than any other the legal rights and duties of the English clergy, and the constitution, canons and articles of the English Church. His substantial collection of pamphlets on which his research is based are housed at

Lambeth Palace Library Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the oppos ...

(where he began his clerical career as Librarian), as part of the Sion College Collection. Among the literary efforts of his later years the principal were a series of ''Pastoral Letters'' in defence of the gospel revelation, against lukewarmness and enthusiasm, and on various topics of the day; also the '' Preservative against Popery'', in 3 vols. folio (1738), a compilation of numerous controversial writings of eminent Anglican divines, dating chiefly from the period of James II. A second edition of the ''Codex juris'', revised and improved, with large additions by the author, was published at Oxford in 1761. Besides the works already mentioned, Gibson published a number of Sermons, and other works of a religious and devotional kind. The ''Vita Thomae Bodleii'' with the ''Historia Bibliothecae Bodleianae'' in the ''Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum'' (Oxford, 1697), and the ''Reliquiae Spelmannianae'' (Oxford, 1698), are also from his pen.

External links

Papers and correspondence

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Edmund 1669 births 1748 deaths People from Eden District Deans of the Chapel Royal 18th-century Church of England bishops Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Bishops of Lincoln Bishops of London Chancellors of the College of William & Mary Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Burials at All Saints Church, Fulham 1660s births People from Westmorland