John Dowden
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John Dowden /d͡ʒɒn ˈdaʊdən/ (29 June 1840 – 30 January 1910) was an Irish-born bishop and ecclesiastical historian. He served in the
Scottish Episcopal Church The Scottish Episcopal Church (; ) is a Christian denomination in Scotland. Scotland's third largest church, the Scottish Episcopal Church has 303 local congregations. It is also an Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, ecclesiastical provi ...
as the
Bishop of Edinburgh The Bishop of Edinburgh, or sometimes the Lord Bishop of Edinburgh, is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh. Prior to the Reformation, Edinburgh was part of the Diocese of St ...
.


Life

He was born in Cork on 29 June 1840, as the fifth of five children of John Wheeler Dowden and Alicia Bennett. His famous brother was the poet, professor and literary critic
Edward Dowden Edward Dowden (; 3 May 18434 April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet. Biography He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edi ...
. Although his father was
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
, John followed his mother by becoming an
Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
, although he attended both churches in his youth. When he was sixteen he became a student at
Queen's College, Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...
as a medical student. John began encountering health problems, problems which made it difficult to pursue his original career. In 1858, while contemplating a religious career, he enrolled at
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
. He graduated in 1864 and was ordained as a deacon, moving to
Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...
. In the same year he married, wedding a woman named Louisa Jones, by whom he would eventually father six children. John was ordained as a priest in 1865, and moved through a variety of positions slowly rising in prestige. John continued his studies and received a
Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD, DB, or BDiv; ) is an academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. ...
(BD) degree from Trinity College. In 1886, he was consecrated as the Episcopalian
bishop of Edinburgh The Bishop of Edinburgh, or sometimes the Lord Bishop of Edinburgh, is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh. Prior to the Reformation, Edinburgh was part of the Diocese of St ...
and served in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
's West End and served this role until death. In the late 19th century he lived at 10 Gillsland Road in the Merchiston district of Edinburgh, but in his later years he lived at 13 Learmonth Terrace, a substantial Victorian terraced house, west of the cathedral. He died in Edinburgh on 30 January 1910 and is buried in the Victorian north extension of
Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...
in western
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. He is buried with his wife Louisa and son John Wheeler Dowden LLD, FRCSEd (1866–1936), who was president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. His memorial in St Marys Cathedral was designed by Sir
Robert Lorimer Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, Order of the British Empire, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scotland, Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, f ...
in 1911.Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Robert Lorimer


Scholarly work

As a scholar, he was author of many works of thorough scholarship, including ''The Medieval Church in Scotland: its constitution, organisation and law'' (1910) and ''The Bishops of Scotland: being notes on the lives of all the bishops, under each of the sees, prior to the Reformation'' (1912). Both were published posthumously by James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow. The former, although extremely dated, is still regarded as one of the main starting points in medieval Scottish ecclesiastical history, and the latter remains to this day one of the most comprehensive guides to medieval Scottish episcopal
prosopography Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a group of people, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable. Research subjects are analysed by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line a ...
. An earlier work, ''The Workmanship of the Prayer Book: In Its Literary and Liturgical Aspects'', (London: Methuen, 1899) remains an indispensable analysis of the background to and ethos of the Book of Common Prayer. Dowden gave the Rhind lectures in 1901, on "The Constitution, Organisation, and Law of the Mediaeval Church in Scotland".


References


Further reading

*Dowden, Alice (1910) "Biographical sketch" in: Dowden, John: ''The Medieval Church in Scotland'' * *Watt, D. E. R., "Scotland: Religion and Piety", in Steve Rigby (ed.), ''A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages'', (Oxford, 2003), pp. 396–410 (info on p. 396)


External links

*
Bibliographic directory
from
Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowden, John 1840 births 1910 deaths Bishops of Edinburgh 19th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops 20th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops Alumni of Queens College Cork Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish Anglicans Converts to Anglicanism from Presbyterianism