Samuel Wilberforce (7 September 1805 – 19 July 1873) was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce.

Wilberforce combined a religious vocation with significant influence in the theological, political, and scientific circles of Victorian Britain. He is regarded as one of the greatest public speakers of his day. A high church cleric, he served successively as Bishop of Oxford (1845–1869) and Bishop of Winchester (1869–1873). He is now best remembered for his opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution at a debate in 1860.

Early life

He was born at Clapham Common, London, the fifth child of William Wilberforce, a major campaigner against the slave trade and slavery, and Barbara Spooner; he was the younger brother of Robert Isaac Wilberforce. He had an Anglican education, outside the English public schools. This was the "private and domestic" pattern of instruction chosen for his sons by William Wilberforce. It concentrated on a traditional teaching of the classics, but in a clerical home environment.

Samuel Wilberforce was from 1812 under Stephen Langston, and then Edward Garrard Marsh. With Henry Hoare of Staplehurst and others, he was a pupil in 1819 at Stanstead Park, near Racton in Sussex, of George Hodson, at that time chaplain to Lewis Way. Hodson was tutoring Albert Way, but gathered a small class of six boys, who included also James Thomason. In 1820 Hodson moved to Maisemore near Gloucester as a curate, taking pupils with him.

In 1823 Wilberforce entered Oriel College, Oxford. In the United Debating Society, the forerunner of the Oxford Union, he demonstrated some Whig views. His friends included William Ewart Gladstone and Henry Edward Manning, and were nicknamed the "Bethel Union" for their religiosity. Wilberforce's student recreations included riding and hunting.

Wilberforce in late 1826 tried and failed for a fellowship at Balliol College. He spent the summer and autumn of 1827 touring the continent. He married Emily Sargent, daughter of the rector of East Lavington, West Sussex in 1828. After his marriage a college fellowship was no longer possible. He was ordained deacon in the Church of England. In 1829 he was ordained priest and appointed curate at Checkendon, near Henley-on-Thames. In November 1839 he was installed archdeacon of Surrey, in August 1840 he was collated canon of Winchester, and in October he accepted the rectory of Alverstoke. He set up a Diocesan Church Building Fund. This gave small grants intended to act as a lever for more substantial funding from other sources, a successful fundraising approach. In 1850 Wilberforce appointed George Edmund Street as architect to the diocese of Oxford. Street built or improved 113 churches there during his tenure. In 1854, Wilberforce opened a theological college at Cuddesdon, now known as Ripon College Cuddesdon, which later was the subject of some controversy over its alleged Romanist tendencies. He signed the remonstrance of 13 bishops to Lord John Russell against the appointment of Hampden, accused of heretical views, to the bishopric of Hereford. He wished to obtain some assurances from Hampden; unsuccessful in this, he withdrew from the suit against him.

In 1979, JR Lucas argued that "Wilberforce, contrary to the central tenet of the legend, did not prejudge the issue". He criticised Darwin's theory on scientific grounds, arguing that it was not supported by the facts, and he noted that the greatest names in science were opposed to the theory. "Reports from the time suggest that everybody enjoyed themselves immensely, and all went cheerfully off to dinner together afterwards".

Wilberforce wrote a review of On the Origin of Species for the Quarterly Review. In it, he disagreed with Darwin's reasoning.

Essays and Reviews

His attitude towards Essays and Reviews in 1861, against which he wrote an article in the Quarterly Review, won Wilberforce the gratitude of the Low Churchmen. The anonymous Britannica 1911 author wrote of it that His diary reveals a tender and devout private life which has been overlooked by those who have only considered the versatile facility and persuasive expediency that marked the successful public career of the bishop, and perhaps earned him the sobriquet of "Soapy Sam". A boarding house at the school is named after Wilberforce. Together with his brother Robert, he joined the Canterbury Association on 27 March 1848. He resigned from the Canterbury Association on 14 March 1849. The Wilberforce River in New Zealand was named for them.

Family

Wilberforce married on 11 June 1828 Emily Sargent (1807–1841), daughter of John Sargent, and his wife Mary Smith, daughter of Abel Smith. They had five children who survived early childhood, one daughter and four sons.

  • Herbert William Wilberforce (1833–1856), a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. He died at Torquay after duties in the Baltic Sea.
  • Reginald Wilberforce (1838–1914), army officer. He was author of An Unrecorded Chapter of the Indian Mutiny (1894), a work criticised by fellow officers of the 52nd Foot for inaccuracy. Reginald was grandfather (through his fourth son, Samuel (Samuel Wilberforce (judge)) to Richard Lord Wilberforce, a Lord of Appeal.
  • Ernest Wilberforce (1840–1908), Bishop of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1882 to 1895, and Bishop of Chichester from 1895 till his death.

He is also referenced obliquely by John Mortimer in Rumpole of the Bailey: Rumpole calls his head of chambers "Soapy Sam.

He also appears in the novel "The Darwin Affair," by Tim Mason.

References

Bibliography

  • Life of Samuel Wilberforce, with Selections from his Diary and Correspondence (1879–1882), vol. i., ed. by Arthur Rawson Ashwell, and vols. ii. and iii., ed. by his son Reginald Garton Wilberforce, who also wrote a one-volume Life (1888).
  • One of the volumes of the "English Leaders of Religion" is devoted to him, and he is included in John William Burgon's Lives of Twelve Good Men (1888).
  • Woodward, Horace B. 1907. History of the Geological Society of London. Geological Society, London, 336p
  • John Hedley Brooke, "Samuel Wilberforce, Thomas Huxley, and Genesis," in Michael Lieb, Emma Mason and Jonathan Roberts (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Reception History of the Bible (Oxford, OUP, 2011), 397–412.
  • Burgon, John William: Lives of Twelve Good Men, Murray, London 1891, pp. 242–278.
  • A list of the works of Samuel Wilberforce

Attribution