Archbishop of Canterbury from 1747 to 1757
Thomas Herring
(1693 – 23 March 1757) was
Archbishop of Canterbury
from 1747 to 1757.
Early life and education
[
edit
]
He was the son of John Herring, rector of
Walsoken
in Norfolk, who had previously been vicar of
Foxton
, near Cambridge, and his wife, Martha Potts.
[1]
He was educated at
Wisbech Grammar School
and
Jesus College, Cambridge
, matriculating in 1710, graduating
B.A.
1714,
M.A.
1717. Having migrated to
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
, in 1714, he was a fellow of Corpus Christi from 1716 to 1723, and graduated
D.D.
(
comitia regia
) in 1728.
[2]
[3]
At Cambridge, he was an exact contemporary of
Matthew Hutton
, who succeeded him in turn in each of his dioceses.
Career
[
edit
]
Herring became a close friend of
Philip Yorke
, the
Solicitor General
, who would later, as Lord Hardwicke, serve for many years as
Lord Chancellor
, and as such, was able to advance quickly. In 1727 he became a chaplain to
King George II
, in 1732
Dean of Rochester
, and in 1737 he was appointed
Bishop of Bangor
, consecrated 15 January 1738.
Archbishop of York
[
edit
]
On 21 April 1743 he was translated to York and appointed
Archbishop of York
. On 23 September 1745, during the
Jacobite rising
, Herring gave a rousing sermon which, as
Paul Langford
notes, "captured the patriotic imagination as nothing previously had. It was to remain long in the collective mind of patriotic Protestantism."
[4]
At a speech at
York Castle
on 24 September, Herring said:
...these Commotions in the
North
are but Part of a Great Plan concerted for our Ruin?They have begun under the Countenance, and will be supported by the Forces of
France
and
Spain
, our old and inveterate, (and late Experience calls upon me to add, our savage and blood-thirsty) Enemies?A Circumstance that should
fire
the Indignation of every honest
Englishman
. If these Designs should succeed, and Popery and Arbitrary Power come in upon us, under the Influence and Direction of these two Tyrannical and Corrupted Courts, I leave you to reflect, what would become of every Thing that is valuable to us! We are now bless'd with the mild Administration of a Just and Protestant King, who is of so strict an Adherence to the Laws of our Country, that not an Instance can be pointed out, during his whole reign, wherein he made the least Attempt upon the Liberty, or Property, or Religion, of a single Person. But if the Ambition and Pride of
France
and
Spain
, is to dictate to us, we must submit to a Man to govern us under their hated and accursed Influence, who brings his Religion from
Rome
, and Rules and Maxims of his Government from
Paris
and
Madrid
.
[5]
Horace Walpole
said this speech "had as much true spirit, honesty and bravery in it as ever was penned by an historian for an ancient hero".
[6]
When
Lord Hardwicke
, the Lord Chancellor, repeated the speech's contents to King George II, the King ordered that the speech be printed in the
Gazette
. After Hardwicke enquired whether he should send Herring a message containing the King's admiration of "his zeal and activity", the King said this was not enough: "...you must also tell the Archbishop that I heartily thank him for it."
[7]
Herring organised Yorkshire into resistance against the Jacobites by raising volunteers and money. According to
Reed Browning
, Herring's behaviour during the rebellion had demonstrated that he was "a resolute Whig, a brave Briton, and a commanding prelate."
[8]
Herring supported the Walpoleon Whigs because he viewed the Protestant Succession embodied in the House of Hanover as essential to Britain: "Let us remember that, next under God, Union at Home, and Loyalty and Affection to the King and his Royal Family, are our great and sure Defence."
[9]
He was also deeply suspicious of France as a Roman Catholic nation and a threat to the British nation.
[10]
Archbishopric of Canterbury
[
edit
]
On 21 Oct 1747, he was nominated as
Archbishop of Canterbury
. There he generally followed the lead of his friend the Lord Chancellor, and frequently came into disputes with the
Duke of Newcastle
, the Secretary of State. Herring, like his immediate predecessor, had taken a generally Hanoverian side through the
Bangorian controversy
and stood against the
convocation
.
Herring is generally credited as being the author of "A New Form of Common Prayer", published anonymously in 1753 in response to
John Jones
's
Free and Candid Disquisitions
(1749). However, as a conciliator he eschewed controversy and rejoiced that he was "called up to this high station, at a time, when spite, and rancour, and bitterness of spirit are out of countenance; when we breathe the benign and comfortable air of liberty and toleration."
[11]
He died in 1757 and was buried in
Croydon Minster
in Surrey.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Holtby, Robert T. (2004).
"Herring, Thomas (1693?1757), archbishop of Canterbury"
.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/13098
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- ^
"Thomas Herring (HRN710T)"
.
A Cambridge Alumni Database
. University of Cambridge.
- ^
A biographical dictionary of America
by the Rev. John L. Blake, 1788?1857]
- ^
Paul Langford,
A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727?1783
(Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 202?3.
- ^
Thomas Herring,
A Sermon Preach'd at the Cathedral Church of York. September, the 22d, 1745: On Occasion of the present Rebellion in Scotland
(York, 1745), pp. 28?29.
- ^
W. A. Speck,
The Butcher. The Duke of Cumberland and the Suppression of the 45
(Welsh Academic Press, 1995), p. 55.
- ^
Speck, p. 56.
- ^
Reed Browning, 'Thomas Herring, the Court Whig as Pastor',
Political and Constitutional Ideas of the Court Whigs
(Louisiana State University Press, 1982) p. 90.
- ^
Browning, p. 100.
- ^
Browning, pp. 104?5.
- ^
Letter to
William Duncombe
, quoted by E. Carpenter in "Cantuar" p243 -Mowbray, Oxford, 1988.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- R. Garnett, 'Correspondence of Archbishop Herring and Lord Hardwicke during the Rebellion of 1745',
English Historical Review
, XIX (1904), pp. 529?31.
- Aldred W. Rowden
The Primates of the Four Georges
(London, 1916), pp. 167?229.
|
---|
|
Pre-
Conquest
| |
---|
Conquest to
Reformation
| |
---|
Post-Reformation
| |
---|
Italics
indicate a person who was elected but not confirmed.
|
|
---|
Pre-
Reformation
bishops
| |
---|
Pre-Reformation
archbishops
| |
---|
Post-Reformation
archbishops
| |
---|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|