Edward Bickersteth (Dean of Lichfield)

Caricature by "Spy", 1884

The Very Rev. Edward Bickersteth (1814-1892) was an Anglican priest^[1] in the 19th century.^[2]

Life

Edward Bickersteth was born in Acton into an ecclesiastical family: his father was the Rev John Bickersteth, sometime Rector of Sapcote; and his brother Robert was a future Bishop of Ripon.^[3] He was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1831, and migrated to Sidney Sussex College two years later, graduating B.A. in 1836.^[4] He also studied at Durham University in 1837.^[5] Ordained in 1839, he began his career with curacies at Chetton and Shrewsbury Abbey. He held incumbencies at Penn and Aylesbury before being appointed Archdeacon of Buckingham. In 1875, he was appointed Dean of Lichfield.^[6] His chief achievement as Dean was the restoration of the west front of Lichfield Cathedral, which was begun in 1877 and completed and dedicated on 9 May 1884.^[7] He resigned just a few weeks before his death on 9 October 1892.^[8]

Family

He was twice married: first, on 13 October 1840, to Martha Mary Anne, daughter of Valentine Vickers of Cransmere in Shropshire. She died on 2 February 1881, and on 12 October 1882, he married Mary Anne, daughter of Thomas Whitmore Wylde-Browne of The Woodlands, Bridgnorth, Shropshire. She survived him.^[9]

Works

He also published:

• The conscience clause: a letter to His Grace the Duke of Marlborough. London: Rivingtons. 1867.
• Diocesan Synods in relation to Convocation and Parliament, London, 1867, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1883.
• My Hereafter, London, 1883, 16mo.

He edited the fifth edition of The Bishopric of Souls (London, 1877, 8vo), with a memoir of the author, Robert Wilson Evans, and in 1882 contributed an exposition on St. Mark's Gospel to the Pulpit Commentary.^[9]

References