The Stuart Secret Army by Evelyn Lord

Author:Evelyn Lord [Lord, Evelyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Europe, Great Britain, Modern, 17th Century, 18th Century
ISBN: 9781317868545
Google: 0Ho2DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-19T05:00:57+00:00

Bishop Atterbury and his plot

Francis Atterbury was born in 1662 into a clerical family. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, becoming dean of that college and a member and patron of a group of neo-Latinist, quasi-Jacobite poets and academics.38 One of Atterbury’s students was Charles Boyle, Lord Orrery’s son, another Jacobite, but at this point there was no hard evidence of Atterbury’s Jacobite leanings, and indeed his background was Parliamentarian and Whig rather than Royalist and Tory.39 But there was evidence of his argumentative and litigious character, which came to light in a pamphlet he wrote questioning the legal rights of the university visitor. In 1693 he left Oxford to become the minister of the Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospitals, and the St Bride’s lecturer. Bridewell Hospital was already known for its Jacobite leanings, and Bridewell boys, as they were called, were involved in anti-Whig riots.

Atterbury became a noted preacher, much in demand. He also became a rallying point for high church Tories within the Church of England convocation, challenging the crown’s right to ignore its orders. Convocation was to become a battleground for high and low churchmen, with Atterbury the principal spokesman for the high church parish priests. Fearing an attack on the low church moderates which might alter the character of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury suspended the convocation. By this time Atterbury had become an influential political figure, advising both Queen Anne and the Earl of Oxford on church matters. In 1704 he was made Dean of Carlisle, an appointment that appalled William Nicolson the Bishop, who was a moderate. Soon Dean and Bishop were at loggerheads, a disagreement that at times descended into childishness. It started when two minor canons came to blows in a chapter meeting in Carlisle cathedral. They were suspended, but returned to office after they apologised to the vicedean and chapter. Atterbury objected to this.40 Animosity grew and in January 1705 Nicolson tried to get Atterbury’s appointment suppressed by raising doubts about the legality of the letters patent. The date on these was 15 July 1704, whereas the former dean did not die until 31 July 1704.41 The matter went to the ecclesiastical court.

On his one visit to Carlisle, not only was Atterbury annoyed because there was no civic reception waiting to meet him, but he managed to alienate the whole chapter except one, Dr Hugh Todd, whom he left in Carlisle to fight his place. A dispute broke out between the Dean and the chapter after the appointment of Christopher Whittingdale to the living of Castle Sowerby. On 13 November 1705 Nicolson wrote that ‘Mr Dean of Carlisle, is half in a passion about the vice-dean and chapter presenting the Sowerby living’. But Atterbury had returned to London to live in Chelsea ‘in a pretty Box, with good Gardens’, and on 4 January 1706 Secretary Harley, Atterbury’s friend, granted him permission to live away from Carlisle.42 Efforts were made to dislodge him from the deanery

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