39 Facts About Samuel Wilberforce

Samuel Wilberforce, FRS was an English bishop in the Church of England, and the third son of William Wilberforce.

Samuel Wilberforce is best remembered for his opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution at a debate in 1860.

Samuel Wilberforce was born at Clapham Common, London, the fifth child of William Wilberforce, a major campaigner against the slave trade and slavery, and Barbara Spooner; he was the younger brother of Robert Isaac Wilberforce.

Samuel Wilberforce had an Anglican education, outside the English public schools.

Samuel Wilberforce was from 1812 under Stephen Langston, and then Edward Garrard Marsh.

Samuel Wilberforce was schooled under Hodson in Gloucestershire until 1822, when he required coaching for university entrance.

Samuel Wilberforce's friends included William Ewart Gladstone and Henry Edward Manning, and were nicknamed the "Bethel Union" for their religiosity.

Samuel Wilberforce graduated in 1826, taking a first-class degree in mathematics and a second in classics.

Samuel Wilberforce spent the summer and autumn of 1827 touring the continent.

Samuel Wilberforce married Emily Sargent, daughter of the rector of East Lavington, West Sussex in 1828.

Samuel Wilberforce was ordained deacon in the Church of England.

In 1830, Samuel Wilberforce was presented by Charles Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, to the rectory of St Mary's Church, Brighstone, in the Isle of Wight.

In January 1841, Samuel Wilberforce was made chaplain to Prince Albert, an appointment he owed to an anti-slavery speech he had made some months previously.

In March 1845 Samuel Wilberforce accepted the position of Dean of Westminster and, in October the same year, was appointed as the Bishop of Oxford by Sir Robert Peel.

In 1850 Samuel Wilberforce appointed George Edmund Street as architect to the diocese of Oxford.

In 1854, Samuel Wilberforce opened a theological college at Cuddesdon, now known as Ripon College Cuddesdon, which later was the subject of some controversy over its alleged Romanist tendencies.

From an evangelical background and upbringing in line with Clapham Sect orthodoxy, Samuel Wilberforce began to develop into a High Churchman and High Tory in the early days of his priesthood.

Samuel Wilberforce's ideas developed with broader contacts, and the politics of Catholic Emancipation.

Samuel Wilberforce signed the remonstrance of 13 bishops to Lord John Russell against the appointment of Hampden, accused of heretical views, to the bishopric of Hereford.

Samuel Wilberforce wished to obtain some assurances from Hampden; unsuccessful in this, he withdrew from the suit against him.

Samuel Wilberforce's handling of process and change of mind marred his intervention, and although he made a public statement of error, Charles Greville expressed a widely-held view that "Sly Sam" had made himself look ridiculous.

Samuel Wilberforce took up the suggestion, and campaigned with Henry Hoare of Staplehurst that the dormant assemblies of Convocation should be put to use.

Samuel Wilberforce was strongly opposed to the disestablishment of the Irish Church, but when the constituencies decided for it, he advised that no opposition should be made to it by the House of Lords.

Samuel Wilberforce took part in the famous 1860 debate concerning evolution at a meeting of the British Association on 30 June.

Richard Owen and Thomas Henry Huxley had already clashed on man's position in nature two days previously; on the Saturday, at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Samuel Wilberforce got his chance to criticise Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, especially the implication that humans and various species of apes share common ancestors.

Samuel Wilberforce criticised Darwin's theory on scientific grounds, arguing that it was not supported by the facts, and he noted that the greatest names in science were opposed to the theory.

Nonetheless, Samuel Wilberforce's speech is generally only remembered today for his inquiry as to whether it was through his grandmother or his grandfather that Huxley considered himself descended from a monkey.

Samuel Wilberforce wrote a review of On the Origin of Species for the Quarterly Review.

The publication of Universalis Ecclesiae, the papal bull in 1850 re-establishing a Roman Catholic hierarchy in England, brought the High Church party, of whom Samuel Wilberforce had become a prominent member, into temporary disrepute.

Samuel Wilberforce has been called the "bishop of society"; but society occupied only a fraction of his time.

Samuel Wilberforce died from a riding accident on 19 July 1873, near Abinger.

Samuel Wilberforce had been on the way to visit Gladstone at Holmbury St Mary, with Lord Granville.

Samuel Wilberforce was buried at East Lavington with his wife and her sister, the wife of Manning.

Samuel Wilberforce left a diary, and its content is considered influenced in parts by the editorial work he did on his father's papers, while revealing of his own emotional life.

Samuel Wilberforce was the patron of Philip Reginald Egerton, who founded Bloxham School in Oxfordshire.

Samuel Wilberforce resigned from the Canterbury Association on 14 March 1849.

Samuel Wilberforce married on 11 June 1828 Emily Sargent, daughter of John Sargent, and his wife Mary Smith, daughter of Abel Smith.

Wilberforce appears, caricatured, in Anthony Trollope's novel The Warden, where he is portrayed as the third child of the Archdeacon, Dr Grantly, who is named Samuel and nicknamed Soapy, and is engaging and ingratiating but not to be trusted.

Samuel Wilberforce appears in the novel "The Darwin Affair," by Tim Mason.