Charles Amyand Harris (1813–1874) was a priest in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

and Bishop of Gibraltar.

Family

Harris was born at

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, Hampshire, on 4 August 1813. He was the third son of James Edward Harris, 2nd Earl of Malmesbury and Harriet Susan Dashwood. His elder brother was

James Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury James Howard Harris, 3rd Earl of Malmesbury, GCB, PC (25 March 1807 – 17 May 1889), styled Viscount FitzHarris from 1820 to 1841, was a British statesman of the Victorian era. Background and education James Howard Harris was born on 25 Mar ...

Life

Harris

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term ''matriculation'' is seldom used now ...

from

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is Colleges of the University of Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title for ...

on 5 May 1831; he graduated with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in 1835, followed by an M.A. in 1837. He was a fellow of

All Souls' College All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members autom ...

from 1835 to 1837. In 1834 he was entered as a student of the

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but, changing his mind, was ordained as a deacon in 1836 and as a priest in 1837. On 20 May 1837, he married Katherine Lucia, youngest daughter of

Sir Edward O'Brien, 4th Baronet Sir Edward O'Brien, 4th Baronet (17 April 1773 – 13 March 1837) was an Irish parliamentarian who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1802 to 1826. He was the son of Sir Lucius O'Brien, 3rd Baronet (1731–1795) and Anne F ...

. They had one son, James Edward Harris, who died in childhood. He acted as rector of

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...

, Dorset, during 1839–40. In 1840 he was appointed to the rectory of Wilton in Wiltshire, which had attached to it the rectory of Bulbridge and the vicarage of Ditchampton. On 16 August 1841 he was nominated

prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...

of Chardstock in

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Salisbury, England. The cathedral is regarded as one of the leading examples of Early English architecture, ...

, and made a domestic chaplain to the bishop of the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

. In 1841 he wrote the sermon ''One Rule and One Mind''. His health failed in 1848, when he resigned his livings. After some years of rest, in 1856 he became the perpetual

curate A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...

of Rownhams, Southampton, where Lord Herbert, in conjunction with the widow of Major Colt, had built a new parish church. In 1863, he succeeded Reverend Henry Drury as archdeacon of Wiltshire, when he was also made vicar of Bremhill-with-Highway, near

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

. There he remained an active parish priest and a

coadjutor The term "coadjutor" (literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadjutor bishop ...

to his bishop until 1868, when he was nominated to the bishopric of Gibraltar, and consecrated on 1 May. His kindly manner, gentle bearing, knowledge of languages and long experience fitted him for his new duties in Gibraltar. More than once, he gave an account of his work at the meetings of the

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organisation (registered charity no. 234518). It was first incorporated under Royal Charter in 1701 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Pa ...

Death and legacy

In 1872 he suffered from a fever. Returning to England, he resigned his bishopric in October 1873. He settled at

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

, where he died on 16 March 1874. He was buried at St Martins, Bremhill, Wiltshire on 19 March by the side of his wife, who had died at Bremhill vicarage on 31 January 1865. In his will he left considerable sums to episcopal societies, as well as legacies to his relatives.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Charles Amyand 1813 births 1874 deaths Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Archdeacons of Wilts 19th-century Anglican bishops of Gibraltar