The county has seen many of her sons raised to the Episcopal Bench.
Foremost amongst these was the saintly Bishop Wilson of Mona’s Isle,
who was born of humble parents in the parish of Burton in the Wirral
district. Three years after the Restoration Thomas Wilson first saw
the light; his holy, wise, charitable, God-fearing life was a burning
and a shining light in his age, and his influence spread far and wide.
He planted the Church anew in his remote little diocese. In vain did
Queen Anne and Queen Caroline try to tempt him to leave the island by
the offer of another diocese. He set his face against pluralism, the
curse of his time, refusing to hold any preferments in addition to his
See, which was poor and impoverished. Crowds flocked to see him, to
crave from him a blessing. The writer has been with the fishermen of
this island, and heard them sing their sweet hymns as they kneel beside
their bulwarks when they are going to ply their calling on the sea, and
he was told that Bishop Wilson first taught their fathers to sing those
hymns and seek a blessing on their toil.
We know little of Dr. Hugh Bellot, Bishop of Bangor and Chester. He
was the son of Thomas Bellot, of Great Moulton Hall, in the parish of
Astbury in this county, and died in 1596. Nor can I say much of Bishop
Rider, who was born in 1562 at Carrington in this county. He became
Bishop of Killaloe in 1612, and found time amid his episcopal duties
to compile a Latin Dictionary. But every one has heard of the famous
Bishop Heber, who was born at Malpas in 1783, the son of the rector of
that place. His poems and hymns are known to all. It was his Newdigate
Prize Poem at Oxford on the subject of Palestine that first brought him
fame. For some years he was rector of Hodnet, where he delighted in the
calmness of village life. At length he received a call to the See of
Calcutta, where he died at the early age of forty-three years.
Bishop Edward Stanley was the son of Sir J. T. Stanley of Alderley
Park, and was born in 1779. He was rector of Alderley from 1805 to
1837, and proved himself a model clergyman, shining as a light in a
dark age. He came to an entirely neglected parish, and by his example
and precept transformed it into a totally different place. He was an
early educationist, and took care that his children should be well
taught. He put down drunkenness and prize-fighting, and was a close
observer of nature--a northern White of Selborne. In 1837 he was called
to the See of Norwich, which he held until his death in 1849--a very
worthy Bishop.
A few learned divines we may mention. Dr. Samuel Clarke, a Puritan,
minister of Shotwick, where he was a favourite preacher. He was a very
voluminous writer, and died in 1682. Dr. John Hulse, the founder of the
Hulsean Lectures at Cambridge, was born at Middlewich in 1708. When a
child he was rescued by his grandfather from squalid circumstances,
and obtained high university distinction at Cambridge. He became vicar
of Goostrey until, on his father’s death, he became possessed of the
family estate of Elworth, near Sandbach. John Barron, D.D., canon of
Salisbury, chaplain to Lord Chancellor Egerton, and founder of a Hebrew
lectureship at Brazenose College, Oxford, should be mentioned, who died
in 1642. He is described by a contemporary biographer as “a bountiful
housekeeper, of a cheerful spirit and a peaceful disposition.” Many
other names of learned bishops and divines will occur to the reader,
and this list would include many of the bishops and deans of Chester,
but few of them were natives of the county, and are therefore not
included in these biographical notes.