Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Corrie, Daniel
CORRIE, DANIEL, LL.D. (1777–1837), bishop of Madras, was the son of the Rev. John Corrie, for many years curate of Colsterworth and vicar of Osbournby in Lincolnshire, and afterwards rector of Morcott in Rutland. He appears to have received his early education partly at home and partly at the house of a friend of his father in London, whence in October 1799 he went into residence at Cambridge, first at Clare Hall and afterwards as an exhibitioner at Trinity Hall. In 1802 he was ordained deacon, and priest in 1804, and in 1806 was appointed to a chaplaincy in Bengal. While at Cambridge he had come under the influence of Charles Simeon, an influence which appears to have affected the remainder of his life. Reaching Calcutta in September 1806 he became the guest of the Rev. David Brown [q. v.], at whose house he met and formed an intimacy with Henry Martyn. During the following eight or nine years he held various chaplaincies in the north-western provinces, including those of Chunár, Cawnpur, and Agra, in all of them prosecuting missionary work in addition to his duties as chaplain to the British troops. The Agra mission, which still exists under the management of the Church Missionary Society, and also that at Meerut, which Corrie visited in 1814, owe their establishment to his exertions. During a part of his residence at Cawnpur he lived with Henry Martyn, then in very weak health, and about to pay the visit to Persia from which he never returned. In 1815 Corrie was compelled by the state of his health, which had suffered much from the Indian climate, to revisit England, where he received a cordial welcome from the friends of missionary work. Returning to India in 1817 he was promoted, after a short stay at Benares, to the senior chaplaincy at Calcutta, where, first as secretary to the local committee of the Church Missionary Society and afterwards as president of the Church Missionary Association, he continued his active services to the missionary cause. In 1823 he was appointed by Bishop Heber archdeacon of Calcutta, in which capacity the administration of the diocese devolved upon him on three different occasions, first on the death of Bishop Heber, secondly on that of Bishop James, and lastly on that of Bishop Turner. In 1835, Madras and Bombay having been constituted separate sees under the Charter Act of 1833, Corrie was appointed the first bishop of Madras, entering upon his duties on 28 Oct. 1835. He survived his installation little more than fifteen months, dying at Madras after a few days' illness on 5 Feb. 1837; but short as the period was, it was long enough to impress the community of the Madras presidency with a very high estimate of the piety, devotion, and untiring zeal with which he had discharged his duties. The beautiful statue in the cathedral at Madras and the Corrie scholarships in Bishop Corrie's grammar school are worthy memorials of his brief but arduous work in that presidency. Nor was Bengal unmindful of the services rendered by the late archdeacon during a period of nearly thirty years. Monuments in two of the churches in which he had long been accustomed to minister, and scholarships named after him in the Calcutta High School, attested the regard in which he was held. As a missionary chaplain Corrie ranks with Brown, Buchanan, Martyn, and Thomason. Corrie married in 1811 Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. W. Myers of Calcutta; she died at Madras a few months before her husband.
[Memoirs of the Rt. Rev. Daniel Corrie, LL.D., first Bishop of Madras, London, 1847; History of Protestant Missions in India, 1706 to 1882, by the Rev. M. A. Sherring, London, 1884; Ann. Reg. 1837.]