Oliver Whitby

Last updated

The Venerable Oliver Whitby (c. 1602-1679) was an Anglican priest in England during the 17th century, who became Archdeacon of Chichester. [1]

Contents

Origins and education

Born about 1602, the son of a clergyman in Bedfordshire, he entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1619 and graduated BA in 1622, moving to Hart Hall where he gained an MA in 1624. Later, in 1643, he was awarded a BD by Trinity. [2]

Career

In 1642, as England sank into civil war, he was curate of the prosperous parish of Petworth in Sussex, where the Bishop of Chichester, Dr Henry King was rector. He reported that:

On Sunday last, being the 6 of June, in the administration of the Holy Communion, there happened a great uproar in the said church by some who are disobedient to the laws of the state and Church of England ....Those disturbers of God's peace and the King's, after 500 had received the sacrament kneeling, would force your petitioner to give it to them sitting, contrary to law … and thereupon made a great shout in the church, put on their hats, some crying: “Lay hands on him! Kick him out of the church! Pull him by the ears! Baal's priest, bald-pate, carry home your consecrated bread and sop your pottage!” Others thronged about him, laid hands on him, reviled him and laboured to hinder those who were willing to kneel, insomuch that God's holy ordinances were much dishonoured and many good Christians affrighted from the Holy Communion that day .... They threaten … if he will not give them the sacrament next Sunday as they please, they will drag him by the heels about the church. [3]

Later, while preaching in Petworth church, he was shot at with a pistol. Though the ball missed him, he abandoned his position and hid in a modest house for six months. When tracked down by his opponents, for some days he hid in a hollow tree where his landlady brought him food on the pretence of gathering firewood. In danger and without income, it was not until the Restoration in 1660 that he was able to resume ecclesiastical duties. [4]

He held incumbencies at St Nicholas Olave in the City of London and then at three parishes in Sussex: Ford in 1662; Climping in 1662; and Selsey in 1667. [2] He was appointed to the prebend of Waltham in 1660, to the wardenship of the Hospital of St. Mary in Chichester in 1666, and became Archdeacon of Chichester in 1672. [2] [1]

He was buried in Chichester on 6 August 1679. [5]

Family

Around 1663, he married Ann Ford (1630-1691), daughter of John Ford (1606-1681) and his wife Anne Smith (died 1631). His wife was the widow of Benjamin Hyde and mother of Anne Hyde, great-grandmother of the naturalist, the Reverend Gilbert White. They had six children.

His eldest son, Oliver Whitby (1664-1703), became a lawyer in Chichester and died unmarried, leaving his money for the foundation of a school to educate poor boys from Chichester, from West Wittering, and from his mother's home parish of Harting. He specified the uniform they were to wear and the principal subjects they were to study – reading, writing, and mathematics. The school lasted until 1950. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Book of Common Prayer</i> Prayer book used in most Anglican churches

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The first prayer book, published in 1549 in the reign of King Edward VI of England, was a product of the English Reformation following the break with Rome. The 1549 work was the first prayer book to include the complete forms of service for daily and Sunday worship in English. It contains Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, the Litany, Holy Communion, and occasional services in full: the orders for Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, "prayers to be said with the sick", and a funeral service. It also sets out in full the "propers" : the introits, collects, and epistle and gospel readings for the Sunday service of Holy Communion. Old Testament and New Testament readings for daily prayer are specified in tabular format, as are the Psalms and canticles, mostly biblical, to be said or sung between the readings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petworth</span> Human settlement in England

Petworth is a town and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 east–west road from Heathfield to Winchester and the A283 Milford to Shoreham-by-Sea road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland</span> 17th-century English noble

Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, 4th Baron Percy,, was an English aristocrat, and supporter of the Parliamentary cause in the First English Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genuflection</span> Bending a knee towards the ground

Genuflection or genuflexion is the act of bending a knee to the ground, as distinguished from kneeling which more strictly involves both knees. From early times, it has been a gesture of deep respect for a superior. Today, the gesture is common in the Christian religious practices of the Anglicanism, Lutheranism, the Catholic Church, and Western Rite Orthodoxy. The Latin word genuflectio, from which the English word is derived, originally meant kneeling with both knees rather than the rapid dropping to one knee and immediately rising that became customary in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. It is often referred to as "going down on one knee" or "bowing the knee". In Western culture, one genuflects on the left knee to a human dignitary, whether ecclesiastical or civil, while, in Christian churches and chapels, one genuflects on the right knee when the Sacrament is not exposed but in a tabernacle or veiled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry King (poet)</span> English poet

Henry King was an English poet who served as Bishop of Chichester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eucharist in Anglicanism</span>

Anglican eucharistic theology is diverse in thought and practice. Its sources include prayer book rubrics, writings on sacramental theology by Anglican divines, and the regulations and orientations of ecclesiastical provinces. The principal source material is the Book of Common Prayer, specifically its eucharistic prayers and Article XXVIII of the Thirty-Nine Articles. Article XXVIII comprises the foundational Anglican doctrinal statement about the Eucharist, although its interpretation varies among churches of the Anglican Communion and in different traditions of churchmanship such as Anglo-Catholicism and Evangelical Anglicanism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archbishop of York</span> Senior bishop in the Church of England

The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers the northern regions of England as well as the Isle of Man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican ministry</span> Leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion

The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. Ministry commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the threefold order of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglican ministry includes many laypeople who devote themselves to the ministry of the church, either individually or in lower/assisting offices such as lector, acolyte, sub-deacon, Eucharistic minister, cantor, musicians, parish secretary or assistant, warden, vestry member, etc. Ultimately, all baptized members of the church are considered to partake in the ministry of the Body of Christ.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tillington, West Sussex</span> Human settlement in England

Tillington is a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England, 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Petworth on the A272. The civil parish (CP) includes the hamlets of Upperton, River, and River Common. The land area of the CP is 1,416 hectares ; approximately 500 people lived in 227 households at the 2001 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upperton, West Sussex</span> Human settlement in England

Upperton is a hamlet in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. Part of Tillington civil parish it lies on the Tillington to Lurgashall road 1.4 miles (2.2 km) northwest of Petworth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duncton</span> Human settlement in England

Duncton is a village and civil parish in the District of Chichester in West Sussex, England. The village is in the South Downs 3 miles (5 km) south of Petworth on the A285 road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Glynne (judge)</span> Welsh lawyer (1602–1666)

Sir John Glynne KS was a Welsh lawyer of the Commonwealth and Restoration periods, who rose to become Lord Chief Justice of the Upper Bench, under Oliver Cromwell. He sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1660.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Farrer</span>

Ralph David Farrer is a retired Anglican bishop. He was formerly the Bishop of Wangaratta in the Anglican Church of Australia and more recently a vicar in the Church of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Grove (bishop)</span> British bishop

Robert Grove (1634–1696) was an English Bishop of Chichester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Lockey</span> English librarian and Anglican priest (c. 1602–1679)

Thomas Lockey was an English librarian and Anglican priest, who was Bodley's Librarian from 1660 to 1665.

Denis Granville was an English non-juring cleric, Dean of Durham and then Jacobite exile.

Sir Henry Peckham (1614–1673) was an English landowner, lawyer, judge, administrator, and politician who sat in the House of Commons as MP for Chichester in Sussex at various times between 1654 and 1673.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's Church, West Chiltington</span> Church in West Sussex , United Kingdom

St Mary's Church is the Grade I listed Anglican parish church of West Chiltington, a village in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England. The 12th-century building, described as a "showpiece" and "the most attractive part" of the Wealden village, retains many features of historical and architectural interest. These include an exceptionally long hagioscope or squint from the south aisle into the chancel, a porch which may be Sussex's oldest, and a well preserved and extensive scheme of wall paintings. In the Sussex volume of The Buildings of England, Ian Nairn says that the appearance of the church gives "a very happy, unexpected effect, like a French village church".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary Our Lady, Sidlesham</span> Church in Church Farm Lane West , England

St Mary Our Lady is the parish church of Sidlesham in West Sussex, England. The church is down a short lane off the Chichester to Selsey road, by some thatched cottages. The current church originates from around 1200, probably on the site of an earlier Saxon church.

Thomas Bowers (1660–1724) was an Anglican bishop of Chichester. The son of Mr. Richard Bowers, a draper of Shrewsbury, he was educated at Shrewsbury School and St. John's College, Cambridge.

References

  1. 1 2 Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714 West-Wicksted.
  2. 1 2 3 Horn, Joyce M. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541–1857. Vol. 2. pp. 15–17.
  3. ↑ Source of extract unfortunately mislaid.
  4. ↑ Arnold, Frederick Henry (1864). Petworth : a sketch of its history and antiquities, with notices of objects of archaeological interest in its vicinity . Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  5. ↑ "Find A Grave Index FamilySearch". FamilySearch . Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  6. ↑ "House of Fraiser, Formerly Oliver Whitby School founded in 1702. Rebuilt in 1904; Sir". 4 May 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.