Christopher Wordsworth (9 June 1774 – 2 February 1846) was an
English divine and scholar.
Life
Born in
Cockermouth
Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...
,
Cumberland, he was the youngest brother of the poet
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's '' ...
, and was educated at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, where he became a fellow in 1798.
Twelve years later he received the degree of
DD. He took holy orders, and obtained successive preferments through the patronage of
Charles Manners-Sutton,
Bishop of Norwich, afterwards (1805)
Archbishop of Canterbury, to whose son
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...
(afterwards
Speaker of the House of Commons, and
Viscount Canterbury) he had been tutor. He had in 1802 attracted attention by his defence of
Granville Sharp's then novel canon "on the uses of the definitive article" in
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
textual criticism.
In 1810 he published an Ecclesiastical Biography in 6 volumes. On the death of
Bishop Mansel, in 1820, he was elected
Master of Trinity, and retained that position till 1841, when he resigned. He is regarded as the father of the modern "classical tripos," since he had, as vice-chancellor, originated in 1821 a proposal for a public examination in classics and divinity, which, though then rejected, bore fruit in 1822. Otherwise his mastership was undistinguished, and he was not a popular head with the college. He died on 2 February 1846, at
Buxted,
Sussex.
[GRO Register of Deaths: MAR 1846 VII 313 UCKFIELD – Christopher Wordsworth]
In his ''Who wrote
Ikon Basilike?'' (1824), and in other writings, he advocated the claims of
Charles I to its authorship; and in 1836 he published, in 4 volumes, a work of ''Christian Institutes'', selected from English divines. In 1804 he married Priscilla Lloyd (d. 1815), a sister of both
Anna Braithwaite and
Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his '' Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book ''Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764– ...
's friend
Charles Lloyd; they had three sons:
John,
Charles
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...
, and
Christopher.
Notes
References
*
*
External links
The Master of Trinityat
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wordsworth, Christopher
1774 births
1846 deaths
People from Cockermouth
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Masters of Trinity College, Cambridge
19th-century English Anglican priests
Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge
Christopher