William Stuart (Archbishop)

William Stuart, bust of Francis Chantrey

Hon. William Stuart (born March 15, 1755 - † May 6, 1822 in London ) was a British clergyman. He was the Anglican Bishop of St Davids from 1794 to 1800 , after which he was Archbishop of Armagh until his death .

origin

Stuart came from an old branch of the Stewart family . He was the fifth and youngest son of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute and his wife Mary Wortley-Montagu, 1st Baroness Mount Stuart . His siblings included a. John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute , the General Sir Charles Stuart and the writer Louisa Stuart .

Life

Spiritual career

His father planned for William a church career, which is why William attended Winchester College and then studied theology at St John's College , Cambridge, where he graduated with a master's in 1774 . Shortly after he was ordained a priest in 1779, he became Vicar of Luton , where his father owned extensive estates. He was not considered a man of grandiose words, but was described as the model of an upper-class parish priest who had almost 2,000 residents of his parish vaccinated at his own expense during a smallpox epidemic . In 1789 he became Doctor of Divinity (DD) due to special achievements , in addition he was canon at Oxford Cathedral . After his father, who was with King George III. had fallen from grace, was terminally ill, his mother asked the king for his promotion. After the death of his father, he became a canon of St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in 1793 and bishop of the Welsh diocese of Saint David's in 1794 . After William Newcome , Archbishop of Armagh, died in January 1800 , King George III sought. a new, English bishop for the Irish Archdiocese, whose Archbishop is also an Anglican Primate of Ireland. Despite his concerns, William took office and became Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland on October 30, 1800.

Archbishop of Armagh

Stuart's tenure was not without controversy as the political situation in Ireland was tense after the Act of Union of 1800. He took his office seriously, but although he was considered sharp and farsighted, he could also be quick-tempered. His relationship with the other Irish bishops was difficult at times, as he accused them of failure in their educational mission and lack of spiritual zeal. He criticized the fact that many bishops only lived temporarily in their official seats in Ireland and instead frequently stayed in Great Britain . The sharp criticism that he exercised in letters to his friend, Archbishop Charles Brodrick von Cashel, was, however, in part excessive. He described Bishop Thomas Stopford of Cork as completely incompetent and Bishop William Knox of Derry as the mouthpiece of the English nobility. Although Stuart himself owed his office only to his parents, he criticized George de la Poer Beresford for unfounded moral reasons , who would only owe his office to his family. Stuart himself was chairman of the Irish Board of Education Inquiry from 1809 and 1813 , which published fourteen reports during his tenure. He used his office to reform and modernize church institutions, with financial support from the Board of First Fruits . From 1802 onwards he had a simple renovation and alterations carried out on Armagh Cathedral . Among other things, he had the main altar set up in the west of the nave, which led to the fact that his modifications were reversed during the extensive restoration carried out by Lewis Nockalls Cottingham between 1834 and 1837 .

Stuart himself made an exemplary permanent residence in Armagh , so that the Anglican Church in Ireland benefited from his good example. He died of poisoning in his London townhouse in Bedford Square when he mistook a liniment for laudanum . He was buried in Luton Park in Bedfordshire. In the north aisle of Armagh Cathedral, a neo-classical grave monument created by Francis Chantrey commemorates him.

Family and offspring

Stuart married Sophia Margaret Juliana Penn († 1847), a daughter of Thomas Penn and Juliana Fermor and thus a granddaughter of William Penn , on May 3, 1796 in St George's Church on Hanover Square in London . They had several children including:

• Mary Juliana Stuart († 1866) ∞ Thomas Knox, 2nd Earl of Ranfurly
• William Stuart (1798–1874)
• Henry Stuart (1804-1854)

Web links

• David R. Fisher: STUART, William (1798-1874), of Tempsford, no. Sandy, Beds .; Aldenham Abbey, no. Watford, Herts and Hill Street, Mdx (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1820–1832)
• Most Rev. Hon. William Stuart on thepeerage.com , accessed August 19, 2015.
• Kenneth Milne: Stuart, William (1755-1822). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cathedral History: 'Cottingham's Cathedral'. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 29, 2014 ; accessed on September 28, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Perfected by the Hand of Taste: Funerary Monuments at St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh. Retrieved September 28, 2014 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Samuel Horsley	Bishop of St. Davids 1794–1800	George Murray
William Newcome	Archbishop of Armagh 1800–1822	John George Beresford