Life

The son of Nathaniel Soames, shoemaker, of Ludgate Street, London, he was educated at St. Paul's School and went to Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...

, matriculating on 21 February 1803. He graduated B.A. in 1807, M.A. in 1810. He held the post of assistant to the high master of St. Paul's School from 1809 to 1814, and took holy orders. In 1812 he was made rector of Shelley, Essex

Shelley, Essex

Shelley is a small urban settlement in the Epping Forest District, in the English county of Essex.It is located on the B184 road, and is contiguous with the small town of Chipping Ongar....

, and at this time, or later, rector of the neighbouring parish of Little Laver

Little Laver

Little Laver is a village and a civil parish in the Epping Forest district, in the county of Essex, England. Little Laver has a church called St Mary the Virgin, Little Laver.- External links :* http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15580...

. From 1831 to 1839 he was vicar of Brent

Brent Pelham

Brent Pelham is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The village is one of the Pelhams, along with Stocking Pelham and Furneaux Pelham. Near St Mary's church are ancient stocks which could accommodate up to three people at once. A derelict windmill survives in the village....

 with Furneaux Pelham, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

. In 1839 he became rector of Stapleford Tawney

Stapleford Tawney

Stapleford Tawney a civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is located approximately WSW of Ongar and north of Romford. It covers an area of 670 hectares and had a population of 103 in 2001, making it the least populated parish in the district...

 with Theydon Mount

Theydon Mount

Theydon Mount is a village and a civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the county of Essex, England, close to the M25 motorway.- Nearby settlements :...

, Essex, where he remained till his death. He was Bampton lecturer in 1830, and was appointed chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral by Bishop Charles Blomfield in 1842. He died on 21 October 1860.

Works

Soames's major work in English church history addressed the Anglo-Saxon times and the sixteenth century. His works include:

• ‘The History of the Reformation of the Church of England,’ 4 vols. 1826–8.
• ‘An Inquiry into the Doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon Church,’ Oxford, 1830 (Bampton lectures).
• ‘The Anglo-Saxon Church: its History, Revenues, and General Character,’ London, 1835; 4th edit., revised, augmented, and corrected, 1856.
• ‘Elizabethan Religious History,’ London, 1839.
• ‘Mosheim's Institutes of Ecclesiastical History. … Edited, with additions, by James Murdock and H. Soames,’ 1841. This edition of the work of the Lutheran Johann Lorenz von Mosheim
  Johann Lorenz von Mosheim
  Johann Lorenz von Mosheim or Johann Lorenz Mosheim , German Lutheran church historian, was born at Lübeck on 9 October 1693 or 1694.- Biography :...
  
   was re-edited in 1845, 1850, and finally by Bishop William Stubbs
  William Stubbs
  William Stubbs was an English historian and Bishop of Oxford.The son of William Morley Stubbs, a solicitor, he was born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, and was educated at Ripon Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in 1848, obtaining a first-class in classics and a third in...
  
  in 3 vols. in 1863.
• ‘The Latin Church during Anglo-Saxon Times,’ London, 1848. This work was criticised by J. D. Chambers in ‘Anglo-Saxonica; or Animadversions on some positions … maintained, &c. by H. Soames,’ London, 1849.
• ‘The Romish Decalogue,’ London, 1852.