George Cornelius Gorham

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

George Cornelius Gorham
Gcg.jpg
Gorham in 1850
Born(1787-08-21)21 August 1787
St Neots, England
Died19 June 1857(1857-06-19) (aged 69)
Brampford Speke, England
Alma mater Queens' College, Cambridge
Known forBeing denied an ecclesiastical preferment due to his opinions concerning baptismal regeneration
ReligionChristianity (Anglican)
Church Church of England
Ordained
  • 1811 (deacon)
  • 1812 (priest)
Offices held

George Cornelius Gorham (1787–1857) was a priest in the Church of England. His legal recourse to being denied a certain post, decided subsequently by a secular court, caused great controversy.

Contents

Early life

George Cornelius Gorham was born on 21 August 1787 in St Neots, Huntingdonshire, to Mary (née Greame) and George James Gorham. [1] He entered Queens' College, Cambridge, in 1805, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree as third wrangler and Smith's prizeman in 1809. [2]

He was ordained as a deacon on 10 March 1811, [2] despite the misgivings of the Bishop of Ely, Thomas Dampier, who found Gorham's opinions at odds with Anglican doctrine. [3] Gorham's views on baptism had caused comment, particularly his contention that by baptism infants do not become members of Christ and the children of God. [4] After being ordained as a priest on 23 February 1812 [2] and serving as a curate in several parishes, he was instituted as vicar of St Just in Penwith by Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, in 1846. [5]

Controversy

In 1847 Gorham was presented by the Earl of Cottenham, the Lord Chancellor, to the vicarage of Brampford Speke, a parish in a small Devon village near Exeter, [6] which has a parish church dedicated to Saint Peter. [7] The bishop argued that Gorham's Calvinistic view of baptism made him unsuitable for the post. [8] Gorham appealed to the ecclesiastical Court of Arches to compel the bishop to institute him but the court confirmed the bishop's decision and awarded costs against Gorham. [9]

Plaque for George Cornelius Gorham in St Neots Plaque for George Cornelius Gorham.jpg
Plaque for George Cornelius Gorham in St Neots

Gorham then appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which caused great controversy about whether a secular court should decide the doctrine of the Church of England. [10] The ecclesiastical lawyer Edward Lowth Badeley, a member of the Oxford Movement, appeared before the committee to argue the bishop's cause, but the committee (Knight Bruce, V-C dissenting) [11] [12] eventually reversed the bishop's and the Arches' decision on 8 March 1850 and granted Gorham his institution. [13]

Phillpotts repudiated the judgment and threatened to excommunicate the archbishop of Canterbury and anyone who dared to institute Gorham. [14] Fourteen prominent Anglicans, including Henry Edward Manning, requested that the Church of England repudiate the opinion that the Privy Council had expressed concerning baptism. [15] As there was not any response from the Church apart from Phillpotts' protestations, they quit the Church of England and were received into the Catholic Church.

Subsequent life

Gorham himself spent the rest of his life at his post in Brampford Speke. As vicar, Gorham restored the church building, entirely rebuilding the tower, for which Phillpotts gave some money. He was an antiquary and botanist of some reputation, as well as the author of a number of pamphlets. [16] He died on 19 June 1857 in Brampford Speke. [17]

Publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Parker</span> Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 to 1575

Matthew Parker was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 to his death. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of a distinctive tradition of Anglican theological thought.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Phillpotts</span> English Anglican bishop (1778–1869)

Henry Phillpotts, often called "Henry of Exeter", was the Anglican Bishop of Exeter from 1830 to 1869. One of England's longest serving bishops since the 14th century, Phillpotts was a striking figure of the 19th-century Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward King (bishop of Lincoln)</span> British Anglican bishop and academic

Edward King was a British Anglican bishop and academic. From 1885 to 1910, he served as Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England. Before his consecration to the episcopate, he was Principal of Cuddesdon College (1863–1873), an Anglo-Catholic theological college, and then Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford (1873–1885).

Sir Thomas Wardlaw Taylor was a Canadian lawyer and judge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brampford Speke</span> Village in Devon, England

Brampford Speke is a small village in Devon, 4 miles (6 km) to the north of Exeter. The population is 419. It is located on red sandstone cliffs overlooking the river Exe. Its sister village of Upton Pyne lies to its southwest, and Stoke Canon is across the river, to the east. To the south is the hamlet of Cowley with its chapel of ease, which was formerly part of the ecclesiastical parish of Brampford Speke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John H. Vincent</span> American theologian and bishop

John Heyl Vincent was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Boyd Carpenter</span> English Anglican bishop (1841–1918)

William Boyd Carpenter was an English cleric in the Church of England who became Bishop of Ripon and Royal Chaplain to Queen Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Fanshawe Tozer</span> British geographer (1829–1916)

The Reverend Henry Fanshawe Tozer, FBA was a British writer, teacher, traveller, and geographer. His 1897 History of Ancient Geography was well-regarded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Williams (bishop of Connecticut)</span> American bishop

John Williams was the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut and eleventh presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

Edward Lowth Badeley was an English ecclesiastical lawyer and member of the Oxford Movement who was involved in some of the most notorious cases of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archibald Boyd</span> Dean of Exeter

Archibald Boyd was Dean of Exeter in the Church of England.

William FitzGerald (1814–1883) was an Anglican bishop, first of Cork, Cloyne and Ross and then of Killaloe and Clonfert.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Jenner-Fust</span> English judge

Sir Herbert Jenner-Fust, was an English judge and Dean of the Arches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Lushington (judge)</span> British judge and Member of Parliament (1782–1873)

Stephen Lushington, generally known as Dr Lushington, was a British judge, Member of Parliament and a radical for the abolition of slavery and capital punishment. He served as Judge of the High Court of Admiralty from 1838 to 1867.

William Scott (1813–1872) was an English clergyman, a leading High Church figure of his time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical Anglicanism</span> Tradition within Anglicanism

Evangelical Anglicanism or Evangelical Episcopalianism is a tradition or church party within Anglicanism that shares affinity with broader evangelicalism. Evangelical Anglicans share with other evangelicals the attributes of "conversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism" identified by historian David Bebbington as central to evangelical identity. The emergence of evangelical churchmanship can be traced back to the First Great Awakening in America and the Evangelical Revival in Britain in the 18th century. In the 20th century, prominent figures have included John Stott and J. I. Packer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Speke (landowner)</span>

Sir John Speke (c.1442–1518) of Whitelackington, Somerset and of Heywood in the parish of Wembworthy and of Bramford Speke both in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1517 and a Member of Parliament (1477). He was knighted in 1501. His monument is the Speke Chantry in Exeter Cathedral, in which he survives his recumbent effigy.

Isaac Gilling was a Presbyterian minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Rundle Prynne</span>

George Rundle Prynne (1818–1903) was a British Anglo-Catholic cleric in south-west England, known for his Tractarian and ritualist views. He is also notable as a hymn-writer: his "Jesu(s), Meek and Gentle" ranked with "Jesus Loves Me" and "Near the Cross" for American Protestants in the later 19th century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Maskell</span>

William Maskell (1814–1890) was an English priest of the Church of England, liturgical scholar, and Catholic convert.

References

Citations

  1. Boase 1890, p. 243; Burke 1835, p. 590.
  2. 1 2 3 "Gorham, George Cornelius (GRN805GC)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. Boase 1890, p. 243.
  4. Gilman, Peck & Colby 1905.
  5. Boase 1890, p. 244.
  6. Boase 1890, p. 244; Eckel 1952, p. 276.
  7. "St Peter Church Brampford Speke". www.achurchnearyou.com. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  8. "Henry Phillpotts" 2016.
  9. Judicial Committee of the Privy Council 1850, p. 2.
  10. Erb 2013, p. lxxi.
  11. [1850] Moore's Special Report, 462.
  12. Brodrick, George C.; Fremantle, William H., eds. (1865). A Collection of the Judgments of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Ecclesiastical Cases Relating to Doctrine and Discipline. p. 64, at p.105.
  13. Eckel 1952, p. 276.
  14. Jordan 1998.
  15. Strachey 1918, pp. 56–58.
  16. Beeson 2002, p. 212; Gilman, Peck & Colby 1905.
  17. Boase 1890, p. 245.

Works cited

Further reading