Charles Moss (bishop of Bath and Wells)

Charles Moss (3 January 1711/12 – 13 April 1802) was an Anglican clergyman who served as Bishop of St David's from 1766 to 1774 and Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1774 to 1802.

The Right Reverend Charles Moss
Bishop of Bath and Wells
Church	Church of England
Province	Canterbury
Diocese	Bath and Wells
Elected	1774
Term ended	1802
Predecessor	Edward Willes
Successor	Richard Beadon
Other posts	Bishop of St David's (1766–1774); Chaplain to the King (1758–1766)
Personal details
Born	3 January 1711 Postwick, Norfolk
Died	13 April 1802 (aged 91) London
Buried	Grosvenor Chapel
Denomination	Anglican
Alma mater	Caius College, Cambridge

Biography

Born in Postwick, Norfolk, England, Moss was son of William Moss, a grazier and large landowner of Postwick. He was educated under Mr Reddington at Norwich School and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He graduated BA in 1731, was ordained by Thomas Gooch at Bristol in 1737, and was a fellow of Caius from 1735 to 1739.[1]

Moss served as prebendary of Warminster, (1738–1740) and of Hurstbourne and Burbage, Diocese of Salisbury, (1740–1786); as residential canon of Salisbury, 1746–1786; Archdeacon of Colchester, St. Paul's Cathedral, London, (1749–1766).[2] In 1752 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and served as their vice-president from 1766 to 1768.[3]

From 1758 to 1766, Moss was a Chaplain to the King.[1] Moss also served as rector of St George's, Hanover Square, London beginning in 1759 and remained in that post when he was appointed Bishop of St David's in 1766. He was translated to Bath and Wells in 1774, remaining in that post until his death in 1802.[4] As Bishop of Bath and Wells, he was one of the three bishops to consecrate William White and Samuel Provoost, the second and third American Episcopal bishops, respectively, in 1787.

Moss died in London and was buried at Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, London.

Family

He married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Hales, of Beaksbourne, 3rd Bt., according to that family's entry in Burke's Extinct Baronetcies. Out of a fortune of £140,000, he bequeathed £20,000 to his only daughter, wife of John King,[5] and the remaining £120,000 to his only surviving son, Dr. Charles Moss, a graduate of Christ Church, Oxford (B.A. 1783 and D.D. 1797), and chaplain of the House of Commons in 1789, whom his father had appointed archdeacon of Carmarthen, January 1767, and archdeacon of St. David's in the December of the same year. He also gave him the sub-deanery of Wells immediately after his translation in 1774, and the precentorship in 1799, and three prebendal stalls in succession ; in 1807 he was made bishop of Oxford, and died on 16 December 1811.[6]

Notes

1. "Moss, Charles (MS727C2)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. Institute of Historical Research Archived 20 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
3. "Library archive". Royal Society. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
4. St. George's, Hanover Square Archived 3 January 2007 at the Wayback Machine
5. "King, John (1759-1830), History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 22 February 2015.
6. Venables 1894.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Venables, Edmund (1894). "Moss, Charles". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.