George D'OylyFBA (1778–1846) was an English cleric and academic, theologian and biographer.

The fourth son ofMatthias D'Oyly,archdeacon of Lewes and rector ofBuxted,Sussex, he was born 31 October 1778; of his brothers the eldest was Thomas D'Oyly, serjeant-at-law; the second,Sir John D'Oyly; the third,Sir Francis D'Oyly, killed at Waterloo; and the youngest, Major-generalHenry D'Oyly. He went to schools atDorking,Putney, andKensington, and in 1796 he enteredCorpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 1800 he graduated BA as secondwrangler and secondSmith's prizeman, and in 1801 gained the member's prize for the Latin essay. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of his college.^[1][2]

Ordained deacon in 1802 byJohn Buckner, theBishop of Chichester, and priest in 1803 byGeorge Huntingford, the Bishop of Gloucester, D'Oyly was curate to his father for a few months in 1803, and in 1804 became curate ofWrotham inKent. From 1806 to 1809 he was moderator in the university of Cambridge, was select preacher in 1809, 1810, and 1811, and proctor in 1808.^[1]

In 1813 he was appointed domestic chaplain toCharles Manners-Sutton, theArchbishop of Canterbury. In 1815 he was presented to the vicarage ofHernhill in Kent, but before he came into residence he was appointed, on the death of his father, rector of Buxted. In 1820 he accepted the rectories ofLambeth, Surrey, and ofSundridge, Kent, and held them for the rest of his life.^[1] In 1815 he was elected aFellow of the Royal Society.^[3]

D'Oyly died on 8 January 1846, and was buried in Lambeth Church, where a monument was erected to his memory. He was known in his day as a theologian; he also, as rector of Lambeth, added thirteen places of worship to the parish. He was treasurer to theSociety for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a member of the London committee of theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel, and one of the main promoters of the establishment ofKing's College London.^[1]

In November 1811, by then BD, D'Oyly was appointed Hulsean Christian advocate, and in that capacity attackedSir William Drummond's theistic workŒdipus Judaicus inLetters to Sir William Drummond andRemarks on Sir William Drummond's Œdipus Judaicus (1813). During his time at Cambridge he was a contributor to theQuarterly Review (some of his articles are mentioned in the memoir by his son prefixed to an edition of D'Oyly's sermons).^[1]

D'Oyly also published:^[1]

• Two Discourses preached before the University of Cambridge on the Doctrine of a Particular Providence and Modern Unitarianism (1812);
• an annotated bible, prepared withRichard Mant for theSociety for Promoting Christian Knowledge ("D'Oyly and Mant's Bible") (1st edition, 1814, &c.; 2nd edition, 1817; 3rd edition, 1818);
• Life of Archbishop Sancroft, 2 vols. 1821;
• Sermons, chiefly doctrinal, with notes, 1827.

His sermons delivered at St. Mary's, Lambeth, were published in 1847 in two volumes, with a memoir by his son, C. J. D'Oyly. Some of his sermons and letters on ecclesiastical subjects were published separately. His letter against the secular system of education ofLondon University addressed toSir Robert Peel, and signed "Christianus", was recognised in a resolution of the council of King's College, London (13 February 1846) as "giving the first impulse and direction to public opinion", making D'Oyly "virtually the founder of the college".^[1]

D'Oyly married Maria Frances, daughter of William Bruere, formerly one of the principal secretaries to the government of India.^[1]

Attribution

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "D'Oyly, George".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 15. London: Smith, Elder & Co.