Thomas Fanshawe Middleton (28 January 1769 – 8 July 1822) was a noted

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

bishop.

Life

Middleton was born in Kedleston in Derbyshire, England, the son of Thomas Middleton, Rector of Kedleston and educated at

Christs Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553. ...

. He then went up to

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

, and on graduation was ordained in the Church of England. He was appointed curate of Gainsborough (1792), Rector of Tansor (1795), Rector of Bytham (1802), Prebendary of Lincoln (1809), Archdeacon of Huntingdon and Vicar of St Pancras. In 1814, Middleton became the first Bishop of Calcutta. This diocese included not just India, but the entire territory of the British East India Company (EIC). When he arrived in India he found that he was not allowed to ordain "Natives of India", as all ordinations were carried out by the EIC in London. In response, he founded Bishop's College in Calcutta, which admitted Britons Indians and Anglo-Indians, some of whom could go on to ordination. However although the college was built for seventy students, they still only had eight students fourteen years after it opened. In May 1814, Middleton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on the basis of being "a Gentleman well known to the literary world as the author of several classical works, and conversant with various departments of science" He died in Calcutta of sunstroke on 8 July 1822 and is buried under the altar of St. John's Church, the then cathedral of Calcutta. There is also a memorial to him in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

."Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" Sinclair, W. p. 464: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.

Works

*
The Doctrine of the Greek Article Applied to the Criticism and Illustration of the New Testament
' (1841)

External links

*Warwick William Wroth
Middleton, Thomas Fanshaw (DNB00)
''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', 1885–1900, Volume 37. *Charles Webb Le Bas,
The Life of the Right Reverend Thomas Fanshaw Middleton, D.D., Late Lord Bishop of Calcutta
', London: Rivington, 1881; digital version on archive.org.
January 28, 1769 • Thomas Fanshawe Middleton Was the First Bishop of Calcutta
Christian History Institute, gospelcom.net (archived version). *Dan Graves

christianity.com.
Online Books by T. F. Middleton (Middleton, T. F. (Thomas Fanshaw), 1769-1822)
The Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania, upenn.edu.

- 1832 marble sculpture of Middleton.

References

1769 births 1822 deaths People from Kedleston 19th-century Anglican bishops in Asia Anglican bishops of Calcutta Archdeacons of Huntingdon Fellows of the Royal Society Anglican bishops of West Malaysia {{Anglican-bishop-stub