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HOW, WILLIAM WALSHAM (1823–1897), first bishop of Wakefield, born 13 Dec. 1823 at College Hill, St. Chad's parish, Shrewsbury, was eldest son of William Wyberg How, who belonged to an old Cumberland family and practised at Shrewsbury as a solicitor. He was educated at Shrewsbury school, and on 19 Nov. 1840 entered at Wadham College, Oxford. He was Goodridge exhibitioner in 1842, Warner exhibitioner 1842–3, and graduated B.A. with third-class honours in lit. hum. on 10 May 1845, and M.A. on 26 May 1847. He then passed through the theological course at Durham, was ordained deacon December 1846, and became curate at St. George's, Kidderminster, under Thomas Legh Claughton, afterwards bishop of St. Albans [q. v. Suppl.], from whom he received an excellent training for his ministerial work. He was ordained priest in December 1847, and in 1848, for family reasons, returned to Shrewsbury, where he acted as curate in the parish of Holy Cross. In 1849 he married Frances Anne, daughter of Henry Douglas, rector of Salwarpe and residentiary canon of Durham. In 1851 he became rector of Whittington in Shropshire, and remained there, an exemplary parish priest, for twenty-eight years. In 1854 he was appointed rural dean of Oswestry, in 1860 honorary canon of St. Asaph, in 1868 proctor for the clergy in convocation, and in the same year select preacher at Oxford.
How soon became known as a devotional writer, an efficient conductor of parochial missions, quiet days, and retreats, and a congress speaker. He was offered and declined the bishoprics of Natal (1867), New Zealand (1868), Montreal (1869), Cape Town (1873), and Jamaica (1878), besides a canonry, with superintendence of home mission work, at Winchester (1878), and the important livings of Brighton (1870), All Saints', Margaret Street (1873), and Windsor, with a readership to the queen (1878). The first offer he accepted was that of suffragan to the bishop of London, with episcopal supervision of East London. He had to assume the title of bishop of Bedford, because the only titles which could then be used by suffragan bishops were those specified in the Suffragan-bishop Act of Henry VIII. He was consecrated on St. James's day, 1879, and on the following day was instituted to the living of St. Andrew Undershaft, which supplied the income for the bishop, and a prebendal stall in St. Paul's Cathedral; in the same year he was created D.D. by the archbishop of Canterbury, and on 15 June 1886 by Oxford University. He resided at Stainforth House, Upper Clapton, which was generously put at his disposal by the owner, and became, as a co-worker said, 'the leader of an East London crusade.' He availed himself of the general feeling that the spiritual destitution of East London was appalling, and enlisted agencies for remedying the situation from all quarters. His first policy was 'to fill up the gaps in the ministry, both clerical and lay,' and for this purpose he founded an 'East London Church Fund,' which met with a ready response. The Princess Christian evinced
