Bishop Claughton.

Biography

Claughton was born on 6 November 1808 at at Haydock Lodge in Winwick, Warrington, then in Lancashire. He was the son of Lancashire MP Thomas Claughton and his wife, Maria.^[2] He was educated at Rugby School and was admitted in 1826 to Trinity College, Oxford, where he took a first in Literae Humaniores in 1831.

Remaining at Oxford, he held the post of select preacher to the University four times between 1841 and 1868 and from 1852 to 1857 he held the office of Professor of Poetry.

Ordained in 1834, Claughton was assigned no cure until 1841, when he was appointed vicar of Kidderminster. This post he held for 26 years and was widely acclaimed for his work.^[1] In April 1867, Claughton was nominated Bishop of Rochester on the recommendation of Lord Derby, for whose installation as Chancellor of Oxford Claughton had written an ode.

In 1877, the Diocese of St Albans was created. Essentially land north of the Thames in the counties of Essex and Hertfordshire, previously ministered under Claughton's see, the Diocese of Rochester, formed the new diocese. Possibly as he already resided in the newly created Diocese, Claughton chose to become the first Bishop of St Albans, a post which he held until 1890.

From his enthronement as 98th Bishop of Rochester to his resignation from the bishopric of St Albans in 1890, Claughton resided at Danbury Palace (near Chelmsford), where he died on 25 July 1892. It was a distinguished occupancy as one of his daughters married the Duke of Argyll at a ceremony at the Palace.

He is buried in St Albans Cathedral.

Selected works

• "Voyages of Discovery to the Polar Regions" (1829), poem ? winner of the Newdigate prize for 1829
• Questions on the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels (1853?57), 2 vols.

References

1. ↑ ^{a b} Sutton, C. W. "Claughton, Thomas Legh (1808?1892)." Rev. H. C. G. Matthew. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Accessed 10 Feb 2007.
2. ↑