RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Meee, Wilberforce
WILBERFORCE, ERNEST ROLAND: Church of England, bishop of Chichester; b. at Brightstone, Newport, Isle of Wight, Jan. 22, 1840; d. at Bembridge (9 m. e. of Newport), Isle of Wight, Sept. 9,1907. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford (B.A., 1864); was ordered deacon (1864) and ordained priest (1865); was curate of Cuddesdon (1864-66), and of Lea, Lincolnshire (1866); rector of Middleton-Stony, Oxfordshire (1866-69); vicar of Seaforth, Lancastershire (1873-78); canon of Winchester and warden of the Wilberforce Missionary College, Winchester (1878-82). He was chaplain to his father while bishop of Oxford (1864-69), domestic chaplain to the same prelate while bishop of Winchester (1869-73), and sub-almoner to the queen (1871—-82).. In 1882 he was consecrated bishop of Newcastle, whence he was translated, in 1895, to ’ the see of Chichester.
WILBERFORCE, SAMUEL: Church of England, bishop of Winchester, father of Ernest Roland Wilberforce (q. v.); b. at Clapham, London, Sept. 7, 1805; killed by a fall from his horse at Abinger (80 m. s.w. of London), Surrey, July 19, 1873. He was a son of the philanthropist William Wilberforce (q.v.), studied at Oriel College, Oxford (B.A., 1826; M.A., 1829; D.D., 1845), and took deacon’s orders in 1828. After serving for a year and a half as curate-in-charge of Checkendon, Oxfordshire, he became rector of Brightstone, Isle of Wight, in Jan., 1840. In 1839 he was appointed archdeacon of Surrey, and in 1840 was collated canon of Winchester. At the close of 1840 he resigned Brightstone and accepted the living of Alverstoke, Hampshire. He was appointed chaplain to the prince consort in 1841, sub-almoner to the queen in 1843, dean of Westminster in Mar., 1845, and bishop of Oxford the following October. Within a few months he had completely reorganized his diocese and overcome the unusual difficulties offered by the Oxford movement. He was an indefatigable preacher and a tireless worker in devising and carrying out plans to render the Church more efficient. He established a theological college at Cuddesdon and a training-college for schoolmasters at Culham; was for a time chaplain to the house of lords, and lord high almoner to the queen, 1847-69. He signed the remonstrance against the appointment of Renn Dickson Hampden (q.v.) to the see of Hereford, drew up the address of the bishops calling on John Colenso (q.v.) to resign his bishopric, started the agitation against Essays and Reviews, and secured a synodical condemnation of the volume. It was in connection with the famous controversy that he won the nickname of ‘‘ Soapy Sam” (see Essays AND Reviews). Soon after his elevation to the episcopate he became recognized as a power in the house of lords, where he took a prominent part in discussions on social and ecclesiastical matters. It was he who brought about the revival of Convocation (q.v.). In 1869 he was translated to the see of Winchester. By a resolution offered in the upper house of the convocation of Canterbury Feb. 10, 1870, he started the movement for the revision of the Authorized Version, and until his death he presided over the revision of the New Testament.
Though a leader of the High-church party he strongly opposed ritualistic innovations savoring of Romanism. In collaboration with his brother, Robert I. Wilberforce, he wrote The Life of William Wilberforce (5 vols., London, 1838; abridged, 1 vol., 1868), and edited The Correspondence of William Wilberforce (2 vols., 1840). Other works are: Sermons Preached before the University of Oxford (8 vols., 1839-71); Agathos, and other Sunday Stories (1840); The Rocky Island, and other Parables (1840); History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America (New York, 1844); Heroes of Hebrew History (London, 1870); Speeches on Missions (ed. H. Rowley, 1874); and Sermons Preached on Various Occasions (ed. J. R. Woodford, 1877).
Brstiograpuy: The Life was written by A. R. Ashwell, vol. i., and R. G. Wilberforce (his son), vols. ii.—iii., London, 1879, revised from the preceding by R. G. Wilberforce, 1888, who also wrote the account in Leaders of the Church, 1800-1900, ib. 1907. Consult also the Reminiscences of Thomas Mozley, London, 1882; J. B. Mozley’s Letters, ib. 1885; J. W. Burgon, Lives of Twelve Good Men, 2 vols., ib. 1888; H. P. Liddon’s Life of EH. B. Pusey, 4 vols., ib. 1893-97; Mary C. Church, Life and Letters of Dean Church, ib. 1894; J. H. Overton, The Church in England, vol. ii. passim, ib. 1897; F. W. Cornish, The English Church in the 19th Century, 2 parts, passim, ib. 1910; EH. Stock, English Church in the 19th Century, passim, ib, 1910; DNB, lxi. 204-208.
WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM: Statesman and philanthropist, father of the preceding, and leader of England in the abolition of the slavetrade; b. at Hull Aug. 24, 1759; d. at London July 29, 1883. He was of an old and wealthy Yorkshire family, and his father and grandfather were prominent citizens of Hull. He was a delicate child, lost his father at the early age of ten, and then went to live with an uncle, whose wife was deeply imbued with piety of the Whitefieldian type. Fearing that the boy would be made a Methodist, his mother removed him from the aunt’s influence after two years, but his religious nature had already received a permanent impress, and the tendency thus induced was strengthened later by association with Isaac Milner (q.v.), who had been one of his first teachers at the Hull grammar-school and was always an intimate friend. For fifty years Wilberforce was accounted the lay leader of the evangelical branch of the English Church. He entered St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1776. Being rich, witty, and fond of society, courted by his fellows and clever enough to pass examinations with slight effort, he mingled in the world of fashion and made study a secondary thing. On reaching his majority he left college, renounced the mercantile career and large business interests which were his by inheritance from father and grandfather, and determined to enter public life. He was elected to parliament from Hull (after the expenditure of £8,000) in 1780, and thenceforth sat continuously in the house of commons till 1825, when failing strength and illness induced his retirement.
When Wilberforce entered parliament the ministry of Lord North had been in power for ten years, serving virtually as a mere cloak for the direction of public affairs by the king (George III.). Rebellion had been instigated in the American colonies, then combated stubbornly and inefficiently; the
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