Edward Tatham
Encyclopedia
Edward Tatham was an English
college head, clergyman and controversialist, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford
from 1792 to his death.
, then in Yorkshire
, and baptised at Dent on 1 October 1749, was the son of James Tatham of that parish. He was educated at Sedbergh school
under Dr. Wynne Bateman, and was the Tatham who was admitted at Magdalene College, Cambridge
, as sizar
on 11 May 1767; but the entry does not give the Christian name of either father or son, and he presumably never went into residence. He entered as batler at Queen's College, Oxford, 15 June 1769, and graduated B.A. 1772, M.A. 1776.
Tatham took deacon's orders in 1776 and priest's orders in 1778, and the curacy of Banbury
was his first charge. The fire at Queen's College in 1779 destroyed his books and some of his manuscripts, and he seems to have moved to Banbury. On 27 December 1781 he was elected to a Yorkshire fellowship at Lincoln College, Oxford, and became its acting tutor, proceeding B.D. in 1783 and D.D. in 1787.
On 6 November 1787, Tatham was elected sub-rector of Lincoln College, and on 15 March 1792 he was unanimously elected Rector. To this post was attached the rectory of Twyford, Buckinghamshire
, with a right of residence at the rectory of Combe. He made improvements to the rectorial houses at Twyford and Combe, about ten miles from Oxford, and he is described as a contributor to the improvements at the college, presumably to the front quadrangle, which he gave incongruous battlements.
Tatham preached about 1802 a famous sermon, two hours and a half long, in defence of the disputed verse in St. John's first epistle (v. 7). Tatham concluded the discourse by leaving the subject to the learned bench of bishops, ‘who have little to do and do not always do that little.’ Usually at open war with his fellow members of the Hebdomadal Council
, he vehemently opposed the views advocated by Cyril Jackson
and the new examinations which had been instituted through his influence at the university. He issued in 1807 an ‘Address to the Members of Convocation on the proposed New Statute for Public Examinations,’ and it was followed by several pamphlets of a similar kind, including ‘Address to Lord Grenville on Abuses in the University’ (1811), and ‘Oxonia Purgata: a Series of Addresses on the New Discipline’ (1813).
In the closing years of his life, he chiefly lived at Combe rectory. He scarcely ever appeared at Oxford, unless it was to bring with him in his dogcart a pair of pigs of his own breeding for sale in the pig-market. Many caricatures and lampoons of him passed from hand to hand at Oxford, and he was known as ‘the devil’ who looked over Lincoln.
On the nomination of the trustees of the Bridgewater estate, Tatham, when a very old man, was appointed in 1829 to the rectory of Whitchurch, Shropshire
. He died at the rectory-house in the parish of Combe on 24 April 1834, and was buried in the church of All Saints, Oxford, where a monument was erected by the widow to his memory.
, entitled The Chart and Scale of Truth by which to find the Cause of Error, vol. i. 1790, vol. ii. n.d. [1792]. A new edition, from the author's manuscripts at Lincoln College, and with a memoir, preface, and notes, by E. W. Grinfield, came out in 1840. This series of discourses embodied a new system of logic. His principle was that truth ‘becomes varied and modified as it passes through the human faculties,’ and that it pervades the various departments of general knowledge, being finally summed up in ‘the summum genus of knowledge, the knowledge of revealed theology.’ Edmund Burke
called on Tatham soon after its publication, and expressed high approbation. Dr. Thomas Reid
and David Doig admired it, and the article ‘Logic’ in the fourth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
was almost wholly taken from it. Tatham imitated the style of William Warburton
.
Besides polemical sermons preached at Oxford, Tatham published:
. She died on 24 August 1847, having founded at Lincoln College, in her husband's memory, a scholarship of the annual value of fifty guineas, limited in the first instance to candidates born or educated in Berkshire
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
college head, clergyman and controversialist, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...
from 1792 to his death.
Life
Born at Milbeck, township of Dent, in the parish of SedberghSedbergh
Sedbergh is a small town in Cumbria, England. It lies about east of Kendal and about north of Kirkby Lonsdale. The town sits just within the Yorkshire Dales National Park...
, then in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, and baptised at Dent on 1 October 1749, was the son of James Tatham of that parish. He was educated at Sedbergh school
Sedbergh School
Sedbergh School is a boarding school in Sedbergh, Cumbria, for boys and girls aged 13 to 18. Nestled in the Howgill Fells, it is known for sporting sides, such as its Rugby Union 1st XV.-Background:...
under Dr. Wynne Bateman, and was the Tatham who was admitted at Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
, as sizar
Sizar
At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....
on 11 May 1767; but the entry does not give the Christian name of either father or son, and he presumably never went into residence. He entered as batler at Queen's College, Oxford, 15 June 1769, and graduated B.A. 1772, M.A. 1776.
Tatham took deacon's orders in 1776 and priest's orders in 1778, and the curacy of Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
was his first charge. The fire at Queen's College in 1779 destroyed his books and some of his manuscripts, and he seems to have moved to Banbury. On 27 December 1781 he was elected to a Yorkshire fellowship at Lincoln College, Oxford, and became its acting tutor, proceeding B.D. in 1783 and D.D. in 1787.
On 6 November 1787, Tatham was elected sub-rector of Lincoln College, and on 15 March 1792 he was unanimously elected Rector. To this post was attached the rectory of Twyford, Buckinghamshire
Twyford, Buckinghamshire
For other places of the same name, see Twyford.Twyford is a village and civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about two miles west of Steeple Claydon and four miles north east of Bicester in Oxfordshire....
, with a right of residence at the rectory of Combe. He made improvements to the rectorial houses at Twyford and Combe, about ten miles from Oxford, and he is described as a contributor to the improvements at the college, presumably to the front quadrangle, which he gave incongruous battlements.
Tatham preached about 1802 a famous sermon, two hours and a half long, in defence of the disputed verse in St. John's first epistle (v. 7). Tatham concluded the discourse by leaving the subject to the learned bench of bishops, ‘who have little to do and do not always do that little.’ Usually at open war with his fellow members of the Hebdomadal Council
Hebdomadal Council
The Hebdomadal Council was the chief executive body for the University of Oxford from its establishment in 1854 until its replacement, in the Michaelmas term of 2000, by the new University Council...
, he vehemently opposed the views advocated by Cyril Jackson
Cyril Jackson
Cyril Jackson was Dean of Christ Church, Oxford 1783–1809.Jackson was born in Yorkshire, and educated at Manchester Grammar School, Westminster School and the University of Oxford. In 1771 he was chosen to be sub-preceptor to the two eldest sons of King George III, but in 1776 he was dismissed,...
and the new examinations which had been instituted through his influence at the university. He issued in 1807 an ‘Address to the Members of Convocation on the proposed New Statute for Public Examinations,’ and it was followed by several pamphlets of a similar kind, including ‘Address to Lord Grenville on Abuses in the University’ (1811), and ‘Oxonia Purgata: a Series of Addresses on the New Discipline’ (1813).
In the closing years of his life, he chiefly lived at Combe rectory. He scarcely ever appeared at Oxford, unless it was to bring with him in his dogcart a pair of pigs of his own breeding for sale in the pig-market. Many caricatures and lampoons of him passed from hand to hand at Oxford, and he was known as ‘the devil’ who looked over Lincoln.
On the nomination of the trustees of the Bridgewater estate, Tatham, when a very old man, was appointed in 1829 to the rectory of Whitchurch, Shropshire
Whitchurch, Shropshire
Whitchurch is a market town in Shropshire, England on the border between England and Wales. It is the oldest continuously inhabited town in Shropshire. According to the 2001 Census, the population of the town is 8,673, with a more recent estimate putting the population of the town at 8,934...
. He died at the rectory-house in the parish of Combe on 24 April 1834, and was buried in the church of All Saints, Oxford, where a monument was erected by the widow to his memory.
Works
Tatham's major work was his set of Bampton lecturesBampton Lectures
The Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford, England, were founded by a bequest of John Bampton,. They have taken place since 1780.They were a series of annual lectures; since the turn of the 20th century they have typically been biennial. They continue to concentrate on Christian theological...
, entitled The Chart and Scale of Truth by which to find the Cause of Error, vol. i. 1790, vol. ii. n.d. [1792]. A new edition, from the author's manuscripts at Lincoln College, and with a memoir, preface, and notes, by E. W. Grinfield, came out in 1840. This series of discourses embodied a new system of logic. His principle was that truth ‘becomes varied and modified as it passes through the human faculties,’ and that it pervades the various departments of general knowledge, being finally summed up in ‘the summum genus of knowledge, the knowledge of revealed theology.’ Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
called on Tatham soon after its publication, and expressed high approbation. Dr. Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid
The Reverend Thomas Reid FRSE , was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher, and a contemporary of David Hume, was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment...
and David Doig admired it, and the article ‘Logic’ in the fourth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
was almost wholly taken from it. Tatham imitated the style of William Warburton
William Warburton
William Warburton was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759.-Life:He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an...
.
Besides polemical sermons preached at Oxford, Tatham published:
- ‘Oxonia Explicata et Ornata’ (anon.), 1773; 2nd edit. improved and enlarged (anon.), 1777. He anticipated the erection of a martyr's memorial, and advocated architectural improvements at Oxford. It would appear that he published about 1815 a further tract on ‘Architectural Improvements in Oxford.’
- ‘Essay on Journal Poetry,’ 1778.
- ‘Twelve Discourses introductory to the Study of Divinity,’ 1780.
- ‘Letters to Burke on Politics,’ 1791; the first was on ‘the principles of government,’ the second on ‘civil liberty.’ They contained some severe reflections on Joseph PriestleyJoseph PriestleyJoseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
. On 1 July 1791 there appeared in the daily prints a letter from Tatham to the Revolution Society, declining an invitation to dinner. - ‘Letter to Pitt on the National Debt,’ 1795.
- ‘Letter to Pitt on a National Bank,’ 1797.
- ‘Letter to Pitt on the State of the Nation and the Prosecution of the War,’ 1797.
- ‘Plan of Income-tax,’ 1802. He claimed to have invented the property tax of 1797.
- ‘Observations on the Scarcity of Money and its Effects upon the Public;’ 3rd edit. 1816; reprinted in the ‘Pamphleteer’ (vol. vii.). He argued that there was too little money in circulation, and that the bullion committee should have compelled the Bank of EnglandBank of EnglandThe Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
to produce large coinages in gold and silver. - ‘Letter to Lord Grenville on the Metallic Standard,’ 1820; 2nd edit. 1820. He pleaded that bank-paper should be continued as legal tenderLegal tenderLegal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Paper currency is a common form of legal tender in many countries....
, and that silver should be made the metallic standard.
Family
He married, in 1801, Elizabeth, the wealthy daughter of John Cook of CheltenhamCheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
. She died on 24 August 1847, having founded at Lincoln College, in her husband's memory, a scholarship of the annual value of fifty guineas, limited in the first instance to candidates born or educated in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
.
Further reading
- Erich W. Sippel, Another of Poe's “Savans”: Edward Tatham, Poe Studies — Old Series Volume 9, Issue 1, pages 16–21, June 1976.