WILBERFORCE, SAMUEL (1805–1873), successively bishop of Oxford and Winchester, the third son of William Wilberforce [q. v.] and Barbara Anne, eldest daughter of Isaac Spooner of Elmdon Hall, Warwickshire, was born at Clapham on 7 Sept. 1805. Robert Isaac Wilberforce [q. v.] was his eldest brother; Henry William Wilberforce [q. v.] was his youngest. Samuel was privately educated, being the pupil successively of the Rev. George Hodson of Maisemore, Gloucestershire, and of the Rev. F. Spragge of Little Bounds, Bidborough, Kent. He matriculated at Oxford on 27 Jan. 1823, going into residence as a commoner of Oriel in the Michaelmas term of the same year, and graduated B.A. 1826 (first class in mathematics and second in classics), and M.A. 1829. Later he received the degree of D.D. in 1845, and was made an honorary fellow of All Souls' in 1871. From the age of sixteen he was designed by his father for the church, and took deacon's orders on 21 Dec. 1828, being appointed curate in charge of Checkendon in Oxfordshire. He had married, on 11 June in the same year, Emily, eldest daughter of John Sargent, rector of Lavington, Sussex. His wife's sister, Caroline, married in November 1833 Henry Edward (afterwards Cardinal) Manning [q. v.]
Wilberforce's stay at Checkendon did not exceed sixteen months. An offer of the living of Ribchester, Lancashire, while he was yet in deacon's orders, was declined by his father's advice, but after his ordination as priest (20 Dec. 1829) Bishop Sumner of Winchester, who considered himself under obligations to the Wilberforce family, presented him to the rectory of Brighstone or Brixton, Isle of Wight. He was inducted on 12 Jan. 1830, and remained there for ten years. During that period his gift of eloquence began to attract attention. His father had trained him in his childhood to the habit of public speaking, and when at Oxford he had been a prominent member of the Oxford Union, then recently founded. His visitation sermon delivered at Newport in 1833 was printed at the bishop's wish. Soon his services as a preacher came to be in much request, and within a few years he received offers of better livings at Tunbridge Wells and in London. At Brighstone, too, he made his first appearance as a writer with the ‘Note-book of a Country Clergyman,’ and after his father's death in 1833 he wrote the ‘Life of William Wilberforce,’ in conjunction with his brother, Robert Isaac Wilberforce. During the same period he prepared for the press the ‘Journals and Letters of Henry Martyn,’ and contributed frequently to the ‘British Magazine.’ He also did much work on behalf of the Church Missionary Society and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, two organisations which he tried to unite. He was appointed rural dean of the northern division of the Isle of Wight in 1836, archdeacon of Surrey in 1839, and canon of Winchester in 1840. At the close of 1840 he resigned the living of Brighstone, and was appointed by the bishop of Winchester to that of Alverstoke in Hampshire. He left behind him in the Isle of Wight the name of an earnest and zealous parish priest, and of one who had conspicuous talent for organisation. Before his migration the prince consort made him one of his chaplains (5 Jan. 1841), and thus gave him a position of influence at court which he was to hold for many years. Two months later he underwent the great sorrow of his life in the death of his wife (10 March 1841). Her death put him into possession of her estate of Lavington, which gave him the position the ownership of land in England rarely fails to bring with it, and further marked him out from the crowd of country clergy.
Upon his migration to Alverstoke Wilberforce quickly became known to a wide public. His new cure included the garrison town of Gosport, with the naval hospital at Haslar and the Clarence victualling yard, and he thus came into contact with many men who were afterwards to leave their mark upon English history. It was to be expected that he would soon receive further promotion. In October 1843 he was appointed sub-almoner to the queen, and two years later (9 May 1845) he was installed dean of Westminster. Greville writes of him early in 1845 as ‘a very quick, lively, and agreeable man, who is in favour at court.’ He remained at Westminster Abbey a few months, being appointed to the bishopric of Oxford in October 1845. He remained, perhaps contrary to his own expectation, bishop of Oxford for nearly twenty-five years, and it was in this office that the chief work of his life was done.
The task which he found before him at his enthronement (13 Dec. 1845) was no light one. On 1 Nov. in the year of his appointment John Henry Newman [q. v.] had been received into the Roman church.
