55 Facts About Reginald Heber

Reginald Heber was an English Anglican bishop, a man of letters, and hymn-writer.

The son of a rich landowner and cleric, Heber gained fame at the University of Oxford as a poet.

Reginald Heber wrote hymns and general literature, including a study of the works of the 17th-century cleric Jeremy Taylor.

Reginald Heber was consecrated Bishop of Calcutta in October 1823.

Reginald Heber travelled widely and worked to improve the spiritual and general living conditions of his flock.

The surname "Reginald Heber" probably derives from "Haybergh", a hill in the Craven district of Yorkshire, where the family originated.

The Hebers held the lordship of the manor of Marton, and were granted a coat of arms during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I Richard Heber was the son of Thomas Heber and Elizabeth Atherton, the granddaughter of Richard Atherton.

In 1752 Richard Reginald Heber received the manor and estate of Hodnet Hall in Shropshire as a bequest from a cousin of his wife.

In October 1800 Reginald Heber entered Brasenose College, Oxford; Thornton's decision to go to Cambridge was a matter for Reginald Heber's regret.

Reginald Heber had been helped in composing it by Walter Scott, a family friend, before Scott's years of fame.

The poem was enthusiastically received when Reginald Heber declaimed it at that year's Encaenia ceremony.

Reginald Heber won the university's Bachelor's Prize for an English prose essay.

Reginald Heber sent home a vivid account of the night celebrations for Easter at Novo Tcherkask, the Cossack capital: "The soft plaintive chaunt of the choir, and their sudden change at the moment of daybreak to the full chorus of 'Christ is risen' were altogether what a poet or a painter would have studied with delight".

Reginald Heber expressed pleasure at being greeted with the oriental salaam.

On his return to England, Reginald Heber prepared for Holy Orders at Oxford, where he found time for literary pursuits, was active in university politics and led a busy social life.

Reginald Heber was ordained as deacon at the end of February 1807 and received full priest's orders from the Bishop of Oxford on 24 May 1807.

Reginald Heber was then inducted into the family living, as rector of Hodnet; he was later to describe his role as "a half-way station between a parson and a squire".

On 9 April 1809 Reginald Heber married Amelia Shipley, the youngest daughter of the Dean of St Asaph.

In September 1813 Reginald Heber preached a sermon in Shrewsbury to the British and Foreign Bible Society, a missionary organisation of which he had been a member since his undergraduate days.

Reginald Heber refused an appointment as a canon at Durham, preferring to continue his work in Hodnet in which, after 1814, he was assisted by his younger brother, the Revd Thomas Heber, who served as his curate until his death, at the age of 31, in 1816.

The employment of a curate enabled Reginald Heber to devote more time to his literary pursuits, and to accept an invitation, in 1815, to deliver the Bampton Lectures at Oxford.

Reginald Heber chose as his subject "The Personality and the Office of the Christian Comforter"; the series was published in 1822.

In 1817 Reginald Heber accepted the post of canon at St Asaph, the relative proximity of which enabled the extra duties to be carried out without interfering with his parish work.

Reginald Heber's main literary task during these years was a biography and critical study of the complete works of the 17th-century cleric Jeremy Taylor; the works, with Heber's critique, were published in 15 volumes between 1820 and 1822.

In 1822 Reginald Heber was elected to the church office of Preacher of Lincoln's Inn, which would require a regular term of residence in London.

Reginald Heber saw this both as an extension of his service to the Church and as a means of renewing contact with old friends.

Reginald Heber, according to the poet John Betjeman, was a professed admirer of the hymns of John Newton and William Cowper, and was one of the first High Church Anglicans to write his own.

Reginald Heber wished to publish his hymns in a collection, in which he proposed to include some by other writers.

Reginald Heber began preparing the publication, but was unable to complete arrangements before his departure for India in 1823.

Reginald Heber had a longstanding interest in the work of overseas missions; he supported not only the SPG but its more recently formed evangelical sister-body, the Church Missionary Society, and while still at Oxford had helped to found the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Reginald Heber was attracted to the post, his interest in distant places having been stimulated by his early travels, but his initial response to the implied offer was cautious.

Reginald Heber first asked Williams-Wynn whether there was a suitable local man for the appointment and he was told there was not.

On 1 June 1823 Reginald Heber was formally consecrated as Bishop of Calcutta at Lambeth Palace, by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Reginald Heber faced many challenges arising from tasks unfinished at the time of his predecessor's death and from the long hiatus without a bishop.

Reginald Heber reinvigorated the project by extensive fundraising, by persuading the government to increase its grant of land, and by restarting the building programme; within a few months the college boasted a library and a new chapel.

In June 1824 Reginald Heber, using a power provided to him by recent Act of Parliament, ordained as deacon the first native Indian to receive Holy Orders.

Reginald Heber was interested in all aspects of Indian life and quickly made friends, both with the local population and with the representatives of non-Anglican churches.

Wilson was forced to apologise after Reginald Heber threatened him with a Consistory court.

On 15 June 1824 Reginald Heber set out on a tour of northern India, accompanied by his personal chaplain, Martin Stowe, and Daniel Corrie, the Archdeacon of Calcutta.

The journey was almost aborted near to its beginning when Stowe fell ill in Dacca and died there; after some hesitation, Reginald Heber decided that the tour should continue.

Reginald Heber consecrated a new church, and when he conducted a Holy Communion service in both English and Hindustani, a large congregation of Christians and Hindus thronged the church.

Reginald Heber had hopes of converting the Swami to Christianity, but was disappointed in the meeting since he failed to do so.

Reginald Heber remained in Bombay for four months, and then decided that, instead of sailing directly for Calcutta, he would visit Ceylon on the way.

Reginald Heber arrived at Galle on 25 August and spent five weeks touring the main cities before departing for Calcutta where he arrived on 19 October 1825 after an absence of 16 months.

Reginald Heber wished to pass on to the Governor General, Lord Amherst, much of what he had learned and observed on his long voyage, and on his return to Calcutta busied himself with a series of detailed reports.

Reginald Heber wrote to Williams-Wynn in London, strongly criticising the East India Company's stewardship of its Indian territories.

Reginald Heber was concerned that few Indians were promoted to senior posts, and noted the "bullying, insolent manner" towards Indians that was widespread amongst the Company authorities.

In spite of the pressures on his time, Reginald Heber set out again on 30 January 1826, this time heading south for Madras, Pondicherry, Tanjore, and ultimately Travancore.

In Tanjore on Easter Day, 26 March 1826, Reginald Heber preached to more than 1300, and on the following day conducted a confirmation service for a large Tamil congregation.

Reginald Heber's funeral was held the next day at St John's church, where he had preached his final sermon; he was buried within the church, on the north side of the altar.

In St George's church, Madras, a large sculpture by Francis Chantrey was erected, depicting Reginald Heber ministering to members of his flock.

Hughes observes that although some of the lighter verses are neat and amusing, the general quality is such that had Reginald Heber been only a poet, he would quickly have been forgotten.

Reginald Heber's pioneering commitment to the mission fields was expressed, half a century after his death, by the author Charlotte Mary Yonge: "Reginald Heber was one of the first English churchmen who perceived that to enlarge her borders and strengthen her stakes was the bounden duty of the living Church".

Reginald Heber led through example, and through his writings which "did much to spread knowledge of, and therefore interest in, the field of labour in which he died".

In July 1830 Amelia Reginald Heber married Count Demetrius Valsamachi, a Greek diplomat who became a British subject and was later knighted by Queen Victoria.