William Boyd Carpenter

The Right Reverend
William Boyd Carpenter
KCVO
Boyd Carpenter in 1889
Born(1841-03-26)26 March 1841
Liverpool, England
Died26 October 1918(1918-10-26) (aged 77)
Westminster, England
OccupationAnglican cleric
Years active1878–1918
Spouses
  • Harriet Charlotte Peers
  • Annie Maude Gardner
Parents
  • Henry Carpenter
  • Hester Boyd
Relatives

William Boyd Carpenter KCVO (26 March 1841 – 26 October 1918) was an English cleric in the Church of England who became Bishop of Ripon and Royal Chaplain to Queen Victoria.

Background

William Boyd Carpenter was the second son of Henry Carpenter, perpetual curate of St Michael's Church, Aigburth, Liverpool, who married (marriage licence 1837 in Derry) Hester Boyd, of Derry, sister of Archibald Boyd, Dean of Exeter.[1]

Carpenter was the uncle of Mrs Henry Williams of Moor Park House, Beckwithshaw, North Yorkshire. In 1897 he consecrated St Michaels and All Angels Church at Beckwithshaw, after she and her husband had funded its construction.[2][3][4]

He was an advocate for the poor and against the caste system in India, stating during a religious lecture at the University of Oxford that "we must show fierce scorn against the hateful laws of caste and proclaim the natural equality of all men".[5]

Education and career

"A man Right Reverend and Well-Beloved"; Boyd Carpenter as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, March 1906

Educated at the Liverpool Institute, before going up to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, Boyd Carpenter was appointed Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge in 1878.[6] He held several curacies, was Vicar of Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, from 1879 to 1884, Canon of Windsor in 1882–84, and after 1884 Bishop of Ripon. In 1887 he was appointed Bampton Lecturer at Oxford, and in 1895 Pastoral Lecturer on Theology at Cambridge. In June 1901, he received an honorary doctorate of Divinity from the University of Glasgow.[7] During his time in Ripon, he moved from his original evangelical leanings to a broad church outlook.[8]

In 1904 and 1913 he visited the United States and delivered the Noble lectures at Harvard. He was Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria, Edward VII, and George V. He resigned his see in 1911 on the grounds of ill-health and became a Canon and Sub-Dean of Westminster.

Boyd Carpenter served as Clerk of the Closet from 1903 to 1918.

Publications

His publications include:[9]

  • Commentary on Revelation (1879)
  • Permanent Elements of Religion (Bampton lectures, 1889)
  • Popular History of the Church of England (1900)
  • Witness to the Influence of Christ (1905)
  • Some Pages of my Life (1911)
  • Life's Tangled Thread (1912)
  • The Apology of Experience (1913)
  • The Burning Bush and Other Sermons. (1893)

Family

In 1864 Carpenter married his first wife, Harriet Charlotte, daughter of the Rev. J. W. Peers, of Chislehampton. They had four sons and four daughters, including:

Harriet died in January 1877 and in 1883 Carpenter married secondly, Annie Maude, daughter of publisher[11] W. W. Gardner, with whom he had a son and three daughters.[12][13]

The composer Stephen Oliver (1950–1992), through his mother (Charlotte) Hester Girdlestone born 1911, granddaughter of Carpenter), and his nephew, the comedian John Oliver (b. 1977), are descendants.[14]

A medieval knight sporting an early example of the Carpenter arms

References

  1. ^ David Morris, 'Bishop Boyd Carpenter: Sheep or Shepherd in the Eugenics Movement?' Archived 6 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, The Galton Institute Newsletter, 55, June 2005
  2. ^ Yorkshire Gazette, 2 October 1886: "Ecclesiastical news"
  3. ^ Cottingley Connect: St Michael and All Angels church Retrieved 17 January 2014
  4. ^ Leeds Times, Saturday 2 October 1886
  5. ^ Carpenter, William Boyd (1889). The permanent elements of religion : eight lectures preached before the University of Oxford in the year 1887 . Princeton Theological Seminary Library. London: Macmillan.
  6. ^ "Carpenter, William Boyd (CRPR860WB)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  7. ^ "Glasgow University Jubilee". The Times. No. 36481. London. 14 June 1901. p. 10. Retrieved 5 January 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Stephenson, A. M. G.; Brodie, Marc. "Major, Henry Dewsbury Alves (1871–1961)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34839. William Boyd Carpenter, bishop of Ripon, an eloquent evangelical who had developed broad-church leanings. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  9. ^ H. D. A. Major, ‘Carpenter, William Boyd (1841–1918)’, rev. H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 14 April 2009
  10. ^ "Marriages". The Times. No. 36956. London. 20 December 1902. p. 1. Retrieved 5 January 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Constructing Girlhood through the Periodical Press, Kristine Moruzi, Taylor & Francis, 2016, footnote 15
  12. ^ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, page 344. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition.
  13. ^ Armorial Families, A. C. Fox-Davies, T. C. & E. C. Jack (Edinburgh), 1895, p. 837
  14. ^ Pollock, Adam (2004). "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oliver, Stephen Michael Harding (1950-1992), composer. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). OUP. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51267. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 2 October 2016. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Sources

wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Carpenter, William Boyd". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.

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Religious titles
Preceded by Bishop of Ripon
1884–1912 		Succeeded by