Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bingham, Richard (1798-1872)

1310518Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 05 — Bingham, Richard (1798-1872)1886Arthur Henry Grant

BINGHAM, RICHARD, the younger (1798–1872), divine, was the eldest son of Richard Bingham the elder [q. v.] He was born in 1798, and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he became B.A. 1821, M.A. 1827. He was ordained deacon in 1821, and priest in 1822, and became curate to his father in his incumbency of Holy Trinity Church, Gosport. Here he remained for over twenty-two years. He married, 4 May 1824, Frances Campbell, daughter of the late J. Barton, Esq., of Mount Pleasant, Jamaica' (Gent. Mag. June 1824), and took pupils. He published by subscription two small volumes of sermons in 1826 and 1827, and in 1829 'The Warning Voice, or an awakening Question for all British Protestants in general, and Members of the Church of England in particular, at the present Juncture.' He seceded from the British and Foreign Bible Society, on account of its readiness to cooperate with Socinians, in 1831, and own after published an account of the circumstances. He issued by subscription a volume of 'Sermons' in 1835, and in 1843 'Immanuel, or God with us, a Series of Lectures on the Divinity and Humanity of our Lord,' 8vo, London, 1843. The preface mentions his desire to bring out a new edition of his ancestor's book. Twelve years afterwards Bingham produced, at the expense of the delegate of the Oxford University Press, the standard edition of 'The Works of the Rev. Joseph Bingham, M.A.,' 10 vols. 8vo, Oxford, 1856. In 1844 he was presented by the trustees to the perpetual curacy of Christ Church, Harwood, Bolton-le-Moors, during his incumbency of which he lost (28 Feb. 1847) his eldest daughter, aged 21, and his youngest son. Miss Bingham had early published 'Hubert, or the Orphans of St. Madelaine, a Legend of the persecuted Vaudois,' London. 1845, and at the time of her death left a considerable number of pieces, which were published by her father in 1848 as 'Short Poems, religious and sentimental,' and passed through two editions. Bingham became in became curate at St. Mary's, Marylebone, the rector of which was John Hampden Gurney, to whom he afterwards dedicated a volume of 'Sermons' in 1858. In 1856 he became vicar of Queenborough in the isle of Sheppey. He vacated this preferment in 1870, and took up his residence at Sutton, Surrey, where he died on Monday, 23 Jan. 1872, at the age of seventy-four. Binghan was a fervid advocate of liturgical revision, and a member of the council of the Prayer Book Revision Society. In 1860 he published 'Liturgia Recusa, or Suggestions for revising and reconstructing the daily and occasional Services of the United Church of England and Ireland.' He supplemented this volume by an elaborate model of a liturgy, which he dedicated to Lord Ebury, 'Liturgiæ Recusæ Exemplar. The Prayer Book as it might be, or Formularies old, revised, and new, suggesting a reconstructed and amplified Liturgy,' 1803. Bingham also published 'The Gospel according to Isaiah, in a Course of Lectures,' &c. in 1870; and 'Hymnologia Christiana Latina, or a Century of Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, by various Authors, from Luther to Heber and Keble, translated into Latin Verse, either metrical or accentuated Rhyme,' 1871.

[Catalogue of all the Graduates in the University of Oxford, Oxford, 1867; Gent. Mag. June, 1824; Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1860-1872; Clergy List, 1841-1872; Guardian, 31 Jan. 1872; and various prefaces and introductions.]

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