Samuel wilberforce biography

In he entered Oriel College, Oxford. In the "United Debating Society," which afterwards developed into the "Union," he distinguished himself as a zealous advocate of liberalism.

Samuel Wilberforce, FRS (7 September – 19 July ) was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce.

The set of friends with whom he chiefly associated at Oxford were sometimes named, on account of their exceptionally decorous conduct, the "Bethel Union"; but he was by no means averse to amusements, and specially delighted in hurdle jumping and hunting. He graduated in , taking a first class in mathematics and a second in classics.

After his marriage on the 11th of June to Emily Sargent, he was in December ordained and appointed curate-in-charge at Checkenden near Henley-on-Thames. In this comparatively retired sphere he soon found scope for that manifold activity which so prominently characterized his subsequent career. In he published a tract on tithes, "to correct the prejudices of the lower order of farmers," and in the following year a collection of hymns for use in his parish, which had a large general circulation; a small volume of stories entitled the Note Book of a Country Clergyman; and a sermon, The Apostolical Ministry.

At the close of he published the Letters and Journals of Henry Martyn.

Samuel was Bishop of Oxford from to , and was known as “Soapy Sam”.

Although a High Churchman Wilberforce held aloof from the Oxford movement, and in his divergence from the "Tract" writers became so marked that J. Newman declined further contributions from him to the British Critic, not deeming it advisable that they should longer "co-operate very closely. In he also published Eucharistica from the old English divines , to which he wrote an introduction, Agathos and other Sunday Stories, and a volume of University Sermons, and in the following year Rocky Island and other Parables.

In November he was installed archdeacon of Surrey, in August was collated canon of Winchester and in October he accepted the rectory of Alverstoke. In he was chosen Bampton lecturer, and shortly afterwards made chaplain to Prince Albert, an appointment he owed to the impression produced by a speech at an anti-slavery meeting some months previously.

In October he was appointed by the archbishop of York to be sub-almoner to the queen. In appeared his History of the American Church. In March of the following year he accepted the deanery of Westminster, and in October the bishopric of Oxford.