Alfred Blomfield | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Colchester | |
 | |
| Diocese | Diocese of St Albans |
| In office | 1882–1894 |
| Successor | Henry Johnson |
| Other post(s) | Archdeacon of Essex(1878–1882) Archdeacon of Colchester(1882–1894) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1858 (priest) |
| Consecration | 1882 by Archibald Tait |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1833-08-31)31 August 1833 |
| Died | 5 November 1894(1894-11-05) (aged 61) Brentwood, Essex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford All Souls College, Oxford |
TheRight ReverendAlfred BlomfieldD.D.[1][2] (31 August 1833[3] – 5 November 1894)[4][5] was anAnglicanbishop[6] in the last decades of the 19th century.
Alfred was the youngest son ofCharles James Blomfield,Bishop of London,[7] and brother ofarchitectArthur Blomfield, children's writerLucy Elizabeth Bather andAdmiral Henry John Blomfield. He was educated atHarrow andBalliol College, Oxford before being awarded aFellowship atAll Souls College, Oxford, where he gained hisBachelor of Arts (BA) in 1855 and hisOxford Master of Arts (MA Oxon) in 1857.[3] From 1857, he was aCurate atKidderminster, then itsVicar,[8] having been ordainedpriest in 1858[3] (and presumablydeacon the previous year). AtKidderminster, he initially served underThomas Legh Claughton as vicar, who he would later work alongside as the firstBishop of St Albans.[9]
After this, he held furtherincumbencies in St Philip'sStepney (1862–65),[10] St Matthew's City Road (1865–71) inIslington,[11] andBarking (1871-1882, under thepatronage ofhis former college)[12] becomingArchdeacon of Essex in theDiocese of St Albans (1878–1882).[8] From there he moved to becomeArchdeacon of Colchester in the same diocese in 1882, an office which had previously been held by his father, and at the same time the firstBishop of Colchester (asuffragan bishop then in theDiocese of St Albans)[2] in over 200 years, for twelve years[13] until 1894. He was ordained (consecrated) a bishop (on which day he took up the See of Colchester) byArchibald Tait,Archbishop of Canterbury, on 24 June 1882 atSt Albans Cathedral.[3] He died in post, inBrentwood, Essex leaving a widow.[4][9] His tomb lies in the north transept ofSt Alban's Cathedral.[14] he had become aDoctor of Divinityhonoris causa (DD) byhis university days prior to his consecration.[3] He was a Select Preacher atOxford in 1869.[15]
TheNational Portrait Gallery holds an 1883Woodburytype photograph of Blomfield as Bishop of Colchester.[16]
He wrote a posthumous memoir ofhis father, in 1863, and a collection of his sermons, titledSermons in Town and Country, was published in 1871.[17][18][15] While vicar at St Matthew's City Road, a paper he delivered in 1868 celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the church's foundation was also published.[11] An opponent ofhigher criticism, he authoredThe Old Testament and The New Criticism in 1893, a work ofBiblical criticism refuting the scholarship ofProfessor Samuel Rolles Driver.[19][20][21]
His sermonsThe Manifestation of the Spirit Given to Profit Withal andChrist the Light of the World were published in 1883 and 1884 respectively.[22][23]
Blomfield's January 1872 letter toJohn Jackson,Bishop of London concerning the implications of the caseElphinstone v Purchas (laterHebbert v Purchas) in 1870-71 onritualism in theAnglican church, was published with the titleEpiscopal Patronage and Clerical Liberty.[24] In it, he argued that theBishop had "taken up a position that must gravely embarrass your relations towards the entire body ofHigh Churchmen".[25]
| Church of England titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| in abeyance | Bishop of Colchester 1882–1894 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
