Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oakeley, Herbert
OAKELEY, Sir HERBERT, third baronet (1791–1845), archdeacon of Colchester, third son of Sir Charles Oakeley, first baronet [q. v.], was born at Madras on 10 Feb. 1791. His parents brought him to England in 1794, and, after some years at Westminster School, he was entered at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1810 he took a first-class in literæ humaniores, graduated B.A. on 23 Feb. 1811, and obtained a senior studentship. At the installation of Lord Grenville as chancellor on 6 July in the same year, he recited, in the Sheldonian Theatre, with excellent effect, a congratulatory ode of his own composition. He proceeded M.A. on 4 Nov. 1813. Having been ordained, he became in 1814 domestic chaplain to Dr. Howley, then Bishop of London, to whom he owed his subsequent preferment, and resided with the bishop for twelve years, until his marriage. He was presented by Bishop Howley to the vicarage of Ealing in 1822, and to the prebendal stall of Wenlock's Barn in St. Paul's Cathedral. On 5 June 1826 he was married at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, to Atholl Keturah Murray, daughter of Rev. Lord Charles Murray Aynsley, and niece of John, fourth duke of Atholl, and then took up his residence at Ealing. By the death of his elder brother, Charles, without male issue, after having held the title only three years, he succeeded in 1830 to the baronetcy. In 1834 Howley, now Archbishop of Canterbury, presented him to the valuable rectory of Bocking in Essex, a living held by Lady Oakeley's father in her childhood, and which then carried with it the right of jurisdiction, under the title of dean and as commissary of the Archbishop of Canterbury, over the Essex and Suffolk parishes, which were extra-diocesan and constituted the archbishop's peculiar. This jurisdiction, was abolished shortly after Sir Herbert's death. Both at Ealing and at Bocking, Oakeley was one of the first to carry out the now general system of parochial organisation, by means of district visitors, weekday services, Sunday-schools, &c. Unfortunately, Bocking contained many nonconformists, with whom he engaged in painful disputes about church rates; but none the less he was held in general esteem. In 1841 he succeeded Archdeacon Lyall in the archdeaconry of Colchester; and when the bishopric of Gibraltar was founded in 1842, it was offered to him and declined. On 26 Jan. 1844 his wife died, and he was so much affected by her loss that he died also in London on 27 March 1845, leaving four sons, of whom the eldest, Charles William, succeeded to the title; and the second, Sir Herbert (1830–1903), was at one time professor of music in the university of Edinburgh; and three daughters. He published little, but he was an eloquent speaker in public, and wrote for private circulation numerous short poems, and a memoir of his father.
[Notes of the Life of Sir Herbert Oakeley, by his daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Francis Drummond, privately printed, 1892; information from Sir Herbert Oakeley; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Alumni Westmonasterienses.]