James Atlay (3 July 1817 – 24 December 1894) was an English churchman,

Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. Until 1534, the Diocese of Hereford was in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and two of its bishop ...

from 1868 to 1894.

Life

James Atlay was born in

Wakerley Wakerley is a linear village and civil parish in the county of Northamptonshire, England. Forming part of North Northamptonshire, Wakerley is close to, and south of, the River Welland that forms the boundary with Rutland; its nearest neighbo ...

, Northamptonshire, the son of Henry Atlay (Rector of

Great Casterton Great Casterton is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in England. It is located at the crossing of the Roman Ermine Street and the River Gwash. Geography The village is approximately three miles to the north-west of Stamford ...

) and Elizabeth Rayner Hovell. His younger brother Brownlow Atlay (1832–1912) was Archdeacon of Calcutta. Educated at

Oakham School Oakham School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school) in Oakham, Rutland, England. The school was founded in 1584 by Archdeacon Robert Johnson, along with Uppingham School, a few miles away. They share a common b ...

, Atlay entered

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he held a fellowship from 1846 to 1859. He was vicar of

Madingley Madingley is a small village near Cambridge, England. It is located close to the nearby villages of Coton and Dry Drayton on the western outskirts of Cambridge. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 210. The village was k ...

, near Cambridge, from 1847 to 1852, and Queen's preacher at the

Chapel Royal A chapel royal is an establishment in the British and Canadian royal households serving the spiritual needs of the sovereign and the royal family. Historically, the chapel royal was a body of priests and singers that travelled with the monarc ...

, Whitehall, 1857. He occupied the position of a senior tutor in his college at the time he was elected in 1859 to the vicarage of

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. Atlay was appointed a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

Ripon Cathedral The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid, commonly known as Ripon Cathedral, and until 1836 known as Ripon Minster, is a cathedral in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. Founded as a monastery by monks of the Irish tradition in the 660s, ...

in 1861. In 1867, he refused the bishopric of Calcutta, but in the following year accepted the

bishopric of Hereford The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England, and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales. The cathedral i ...

, in succession to

Renn Hampden Renn Dickson Hampden (29 March 1793 – 23 April 1868) was an English Anglican clergyman. His liberal tendencies led to conflict with traditionalist clergy in general and the supporters of Tractarianism during the years he taught at the Unive ...

. He possessed great organising ability and an attractive personality and was described by

Edward White Benson Edward White Benson (14 July 1829 – 11 October 1896) was archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 until his death. Before this, he was the first Bishop of Truro, serving from 1877 to 1883, and began construction of Truro Cathedral. He was previousl ...

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...

, as "the most beautiful combination of enthusiasm, manliness and modesty."

Family

Atlay married in 1859 Frances Turner, younger daughter of William Martin, a major of the

Bengal Army The Bengal Army was the army of the Bengal Presidency, one of the three presidencies of British India within the British Empire. The presidency armies, like the presidencies themselves, belonged to the East India Company (EIC) until the Gover ...

. Atlay died on 24 December 1894 aged 77 and is buried in

Hereford Cathedral Hereford Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in Hereford, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Hereford and the principal church of the diocese of Hereford. The cathedral is a grade I listed building. A place of wors ...

where he has a magnificent memorial in the north transept, the work of James Forsyth. His eldest son James Beresford Atlay (1860–1912), known as J. B. Atlay, was author of ''The Trial of Lord Cochrane'' (1897), ''Famous Trials of the 19th Century'' (1899), and other works of legal history. Among his other children were George William Atlay, who was murdered by a party of Ngoni people while attached to the

Universities' Mission to Central Africa The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of ...

at Likoma,

Lake Nyasa Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fourth largest ...

; and Charles Cecil Atlay, who died of wounds sustained at Ladysmith in early 1900, during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

. On the completion of his episcopate, Atlay was presented with a picture of himself by

Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne (1854–1921) was a leading British late Pre-Raphaelite painter of portraits and subject pictures, who in later life became one of the country's best-known creators of decorative art for churches. Family and early ...

from the Diocese of Hereford. In 1893, another portrait was painted by

John Collier John Collier may refer to: Arts and entertainment * John Collier (caricaturist) (1708–1786), English caricaturist and satirical poet *John Payne Collier (1789–1883), English Shakespearian critic and forger *John Collier (painter) (1850–1934) ...

. Both were in the possession of Mrs Atlay, and replicas of the latter were hung in the Bishop's Palace at Hereford, and in the combination room at St John's College, Cambridge.

References

Sources

1817 births 1894 deaths People educated at Oakham School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Bishops of Hereford Burials at Hereford Cathedral People from North Northamptonshire People from Great Casterton 19th-century Church of England bishops {{ChurchofEngland-bishop-stub