
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