Robert Eden, 3rd Baron Auckland

Robert John Eden, 3rd Baron Auckland (10 July 1799 – 25 April 1870), styled The Honourable Robert Eden from birth until 1849, was a British clergyman. He was Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1847 to 1854 and Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1854 to 1869.

The Right Reverend The Lord Auckland
Bishop of Bath and Wells
Lord Auckland by George Richmond
Diocese	Bath and Wells
Installed	2 June 1854
Term ended	6 September 1869
Predecessor	Richard Bagot
Successor	Lord Arthur Hervey
Other posts	Bishop of Sodor and Man (1847–1854)
Personal details
Born	10 July 1799 Eden Farm, Beckenham, Kent
Died	25 April 1870 Bishop's Palace, Wells, Somerset
Nationality	British
Denomination	Anglican
Spouse	Mary Hurt ​ (m. 1825)​
Alma mater	Magdalene College, Cambridge

Lord Auckland in the 1860s

Background and education

Born at Eden Farm, Beckenham, Kent, he was third son of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland and his wife Eleanor Elliot, oldest daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet.[1] His older brother was George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, his uncles were Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet, of Maryland and Morton Eden, 1st Baron Henley. Eden was sent to Eton in 1814 and went then to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he proceeded Master of Arts five years later.[2] In 1847, he received a Bachelor of Divinity and a Doctor of Divinity by the University of Cambridge.[2] When his brother George died in 1849, he succeeded him not in the earldom, but in the barony conferred upon their father.

Career

Eden was made deacon in 1823 by the Bishop of Norwich, ordained priest in 1824 by the Bishop of Worcester[3] and was appointed rector of Eyam in Derbyshire in 1823.[1] He was transferred to Hertingfordbury, near Hertford in 1825, a post he held for a decade.[1] Subsequently, Eden served as vicar of Battersea until 1847.[1] He was likewise nominated chaplain to King William IV in 1831 and after the latter's death in 1837 to Queen Victoria for the next ten years. On 23 May 1847, Eden was consecrated Bishop of Sodor and Man, and installed at Castletown on 29 June. He was translated to the see of Bath and Wells on 2 June 1854, which he held until his resignation on 6 September 1869.

Author

Eden was the author of A Reply to a Letter to the Bishop of Bath and Wells on the subject of the recent Restoration of the Parish Church of Kingsbury Episcopi, by George Parsons (1854), Charges of the Bishop of Bath and Wells (3 vols. 1855, 1858, and 1861), and The Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland, edited by the Bishop of Bath and Wells (1860). He was moderate in his views, but inclining to the high church school.

Family

Lord Auckland married Mary Hurt, eldest daughter of Francis Edward Hurt of Alderwasley, Derbyshire, on 15 September 1825. They had five sons and five daughters. She died on 25 November 1872. Auckland died at the Bishop's Palace, Wells on 25 April 1870, and was buried in the Palm churchyard, near Wells Cathedral, four days later. His third son Ashley Eden was a diplomat. The eldest child, Eleanor Eden, was a novelist, and editor of the letters of Emily Eden, her aunt.[4] She was born in 1826; other daughters included: Emily Dulcibella (born 1832); Florence Selina (born 1835); and Maria Harriet (born 1836).[5]

References

1. Dod, Robert P. (1860). The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Whitaker and Co. pp. 107–108.
2. "Eden, Robert John (EDN817RJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. Crockford's 1860, p. 34
4. John Sutherland (13 October 2014). The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction. Routledge. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-317-86333-5.
5. The Peerage, Baronetage, And Knightage, Of Great Britain And Ireland. Whittaker And Company. 1860. p. 633.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). "Eden, Robert John". Dictionary of National Biography. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord Auckland