Edward Bickersteth (bishop of Exeter)

Edward Henry Bickersteth (25 January 1825 – 16 May 1906) was a bishop in the Church of England.

The Right Reverend Edward Henry Bickersteth
Bishop of Exeter
Diocese	Diocese of Exeter
In office	1885–1900
Predecessor	Frederick Temple
Successor	Herbert Edward Ryle
Other posts	Dean of Gloucester (1885)
Personal details
Born	(1825-01-25)25 January 1825 Islington, England
Died	16 May 1906(1906-05-16) (aged 81) London, England
Nationality	British
Denomination	Anglican
Spouse	(1) Rosa Bignold (2) Ellen Susanna Bickersteth
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Life

Memorial in Exeter Cathedral

Edward Henry Bickersteth was born in Islington, the son of Edward Bickersteth, Rector of Watton, Hertfordshire. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in Classics 1847, and proceeded M.A. in 1850.[1] and was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal for poetry in 1844, 1845 and 1846.[2]

On taking Holy Orders (deacon, 1848, priest 1849),[3] he became curate of Banningham, Norfolk, and then of Christ Church, Tunbridge Wells. He was called to the Rectory of Hinton Martell in 1852 and to the Vicarage of Christ Church, Hampstead in 1855,[3] a position in which he remained for 30 years.

In 1885 he became Dean of Gloucester and in the same year was appointed Bishop of Exeter. Bickersteth was awarded an honorary D.D. by Cambridge University in 1885.

Support for Overseas Mission Work

Following in the footsteps of his father, Bickersteth undertook a number of extended overseas mission tours in support of the work of the Church Mission Society and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1880 he travelled to India and the Middle East. 1891 he travelled to Japan on a visit to the mission churches of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, reuniting with his eldest son Edward, then serving as the first Bishop of South Tokyo. Arriving in Yokohama on 23 September 1891,[4] the travel journals of his daughter, Mary Jane Bickersteth,[5] include detailed descriptions of the Anglican church's mission work in Japan as well as visits to sites such as the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō and the experience of surviving the strong Mino-Owari earthquake at Osaka on 28 October 1891.[6]

Bickersteth edited hymnals and was an accomplished poet. Beginning with a volume of poems in 1849, he published extensively. His Hymnal Companion called forth from Dr. Julian, editor of A Dictionary of Hymnology, these high words of praise: "Of its kind and from its theological standpoint, as an evangelical hymn book, it is in poetic grace, literary excellence, and lyric beauty, the finest collection in the Anglican Church;" and the author's contributions to this volume are pronounced "very beautiful and of much value."

Family

Bickersteth married twice: (1) in February 1848 to his cousin Rosa, daughter of Sir Samuel Bignold of Norwich; she died in 1873, having borne him six sons and ten daughters; (2) in 1876 his cousin Ellen Susanna, daughter of Robert Bickersteth of Liverpool, who survived him without issue.[7]

References

1. "Bickersteth, Edward Henry (BKRT842EH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. University of Cambridge (1859). A Complete Collection of the English Poems which Have Obtained the Chancellor's Gold Medal in the University of Cambridge (PDF). Cambridge: W. Metcalfe. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
3. Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1860 (p. 49)
4. Aglionby, Francis Keys (1907). The Life of Edward Henry Bickersteth DD, Bishop and Poet. Wycliffe College Library, Trinity College, Toronto: Longmans Green and Co, London. p. 156.
5. Bickersteth, Mary Jane (1893). Japan as We Saw It. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company.
6. Aglionby, The Life of Edward Henry Bickersteth DD, p.160.
7. Lee, Sidney (1912). Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

• Julian, John (1907). A Dictionary of Hymnology. London: John Murray. pp. 141, 142.
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library. "Hymn Writers of the Church". Retrieved 30 January 2007.
• Aglionby, Francis Keyes. "The life of Edward Henry Bickersteth, D.D" (pdf copy of book). Canadian Library archives. Retrieved 30 January 2007.

External links

• Bibliographic directory from Project Canterbury

• Works by or about Edward Bickersteth in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Church of England titles
Preceded by Henry Law	Dean of Gloucester 1885	Succeeded by Montagu Butler
Preceded by Frederick Temple	Bishop of Exeter 1885–1900	Succeeded by Herbert Edward Ryle