Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halliwell, Henry

1259648Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 24 — Halliwell, Henry1890Charles William Sutton

HALLIWELL, HENRY (1765–1835), classical scholar, son of William Halliwell, master of the Burnley grammar school, and incumbent of Holme, was born at Burnley, Lancashire, on 25 Aug. 1765, and educated at his father's school and at Manchester grammar school. Proceeding to Oxford he matriculated at Brasenose College 18 Jan. 1783, was nominated Hulmean exhibitioner in 1787, and graduated B.A. in 1783, M.A. in 1789, and B.D. in 1803. In 1790 he became fellow, and in 1796 dean and Hebrew lecturer of his college. He was an assistant chaplain of the Manchester Collegiate Church in 1794, and was presented to the rectory of Clayton-cum-Keymer, near Ditchling, Sussex, in 1803, when he resigned all his college offices. From a peculiarity in his gait he was known at Oxford as ‘Dr. Toe,’ and he was the subject of an amusing epigram by Bishop Heber on his being jilted by a lady who married her footman. He was also the central object of a clever satire, entitled ‘The Whippiad,’ by Heber, published in ‘Blackwood's Magazine’ (July 1843, liv. 100–6). He was one of the scholars who assisted the Falconers in their edition of ‘Strabo’ in 1807 [see Falconer, Thomas, 1772–1839], and he made an English translation of that work, which has not been published. After his marriage in 1808 to Elizabeth Carlile of Sunnyhill, near Bolton, he resided at Clayton, where he was long remembered as ‘a hospitable parish priest of the old high church type,’ and as a singularly humane and benevolent man. He died at his rectory on 15 Jan. 1835, aged 69.

[J. F. Smith's Manch. School Reg. (Chetham Soc.), ii. 247; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vii. 393.]

C. W. S.