24 Facts About Francis Atterbury

Francis Atterbury was an English man of letters, politician and bishop.

Francis Atterbury was a noted wit and a gifted preacher.

Francis Atterbury was born at Middleton, Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire, where his father was rector.

Francis Atterbury was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he became a tutor.

Francis Atterbury had taken holy orders in 1687, preached occasionally in London with an eloquence which raised his reputation, and was appointed one of the royal chaplains.

Francis Atterbury ordinarily lived at Oxford, where he was the chief adviser and assistant of Henry Aldrich, under whom Christ Church was a stronghold of Toryism.

Francis Atterbury inspired a pupil, Charles Boyle, in the Examination of Dr Bentley's Dissertations on the Epistles of Phalaris, an attack on the Whig scholar Richard Bentley, arising out of Bentley's impugnment of the genuineness of the Epistles of Phalaris.

Francis Atterbury was figured by Swift in the Battle of the Books as the Apollo who directed the fight, and was, no doubt, largely the author of Boyle's essay.

Francis Atterbury was occupied in a dispute about matters still more important and exciting.

Francis Atterbury threw himself with characteristic energy into the controversy, publishing a series of treatises.

Francis Atterbury took a chief part in framing that artful and eloquent speech which Sacheverell made at the bar of the House of Lords, and which presents a singular contrast to the absurd and scurrilous sermon which had very unwisely been honoured with impeachment.

Recent findings from the State Papers at Kew have established that Francis Atterbury was the 'Grand Prelate' of the Jacobite Order of Toboso in England.

In 1721, on the discovery of the plot for the capture of the royal family and the proclamation of "King James III", Francis Atterbury was arrested with the other chief malcontents, and in 1722 committed to the Tower of London, where he remained in close confinement during some months.

Francis Atterbury had carried on his correspondence with the exiled family so cautiously that the circumstantial proofs of his guilt, though sufficient to produce entire moral conviction, were not sufficient to justify legal conviction.

Francis Atterbury could be reached only by a bill of pains and penalties.

Francis Atterbury took leave of those whom he loved with a dignity and tenderness worthy of a better man, to the last protesting his innocence with a singular disingenuousness.

Francis Atterbury was invited to Rome by the Pretender, but Atterbury felt that a bishop of the Church of England would be out of place in Rome, and declined the invitation.

Francis Atterbury's merits were warmly acknowledged, his advice was respectfully received, and he was, as Bolingbroke had been before him, the prime minister of a king without a kingdom.

Francis Atterbury soon perceived that his counsels were disregarded, if not distrusted.

Francis Atterbury met her at Toulouse, she received the last rites from him, and died that night.

Francis Atterbury survived the shock of his daughter's death, and returned to Paris and to the service of the Pretender.

Francis Atterbury was not one of the editors of the History, and had never seen it until it was printed.

Francis Atterbury's body was brought to England, and interred in Westminster Abbey.

Francis Atterbury lived on friendly terms with Jonathan Swift, John Arbuthnot and John Gay.