Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Bickersteth, Edward
BICKERSTETH, The Very Rev. Edward, D.D., F.R.G.S., Dean of Lichfield, the second son of the late Rev. John Bickersteth, M.A., nephew of the late Lord Langdale, and brother of the present Bishop of Ripon, was born in 1814, at Acton, Suffolk; entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1832, and graduated B.A. in honours, from Sidney Sussex College in 1836, having previously obtained the Taylor's Mathematical Exhibition. He afterwards entered as a student in theology at Durham University, where he gained the first prize for a Theological Essay in 1837; was ordained deacon at the end of that year, and priest in Jan., 1839. Hu served as curate to Archdeacon Vickers at Chetton, Shropshire, in 1838–39, when he was appointed to the curacy, with sole charge, of the Abbey, Shrewsbury. Having occupied this position for nine years, he was presented by the late Earl Howe in 1848 to the incumbency of Penn Street, Buckinghamshire. Dr. Bickersteth was appointed Rural Dean of Amersham, by the Bishop of Oxford, the same year; Vicar of Aylesbury and Archdeacon of Buckingham in 1853; Select Preacher before the University of Cambridge in 1861, 1864, 1873, and 1878; and Deputy Prolocutor of the Convocation of Canterbury in 1861–2. He was elected Prolocutor of the Convocation of Canterbury upon the resignation of the Dean of Bristol, and admitted to the degree of D.D., propter merita, by a Grace of the Senate of the University of Cambridge in 1864; again elected Prolocutor at the opening of the new Convocation in 1866, and First Honorary Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. He was for the third time elected Prolocutor in Dec. 1868; and again for the fourth time in 1874. He was Select Preacher before the University of Oxford in 1875. In Feb. 1875, he was nominated by the Crown to the Deanery of Lichfield, which had become vacant by the death of the Very Rev. William Weldon Champneys. He has published "Questions illustrating the Thirty-nine Articles," "Catechetical Exercises on the Apostles' Creed," "Prayers for the Present Times," Charges delivered at his Visitations in 1855, 1856, 1858, 1859, 1861, 1862, 1864, 1865, 1867, 1868, and 1870; "God's Judgments in India, a Warning to England,"—a sermon on the Fast Day, Oct. 7, 1857; "Church Music,"—a sermon; "The Convictions of Balaam,"—an Oxford Lenten sermon; "The Anthem of Creation,"—a Choral Festival Sermon; "The Conflict with the Spirit of Expediency,"—an Oxford Lenten Sermon; various tracts in the 3rd series of "Tracts for the Christian Seasons;" a paper on "Diocesan Synods," read at the York Congress in 1866; "The Authority and Responsibilities of the Christian Ministry,"—an ordination sermon preached in Ripon Cathedral in 1866; "The Victor on his Throne delivering up the Kingdom,"—an Oxford Lenten sermon, 1867"; a Consecration sermon in Westminster Abbey, Feb. 24, 1869; "Enoch,"—an Oxford Lenten sermon, 1869; "Counsels of Peace for the Church of England,"—an address to the Clergy of the Rural Deanery of Handsworth, 1877; "The Reform of Convocation," 1877; "St. Paul's Message to Archippas,"—an Ordination sermon, 1878; "The Mercian Church and St. Chad,"—an Address delivered in Lichfield Cathedral on March 2, 1880; "Man in the Universe without God,"—a sermon preached at the request of the "Christian Evidence Society," July, 1880; "Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister," Oct., 1881. He also brought out a new edition of Evans's "Bishopric of Souls," 1877. Dean Bickersteth was a member of the company appointed by Convocation to revise the New Testament; and he is the writer of an Exposition of St. Mark's Gospel for the "Pulpit Commentary."