Sir William Ashburnham, 4th Baronet
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Portrait_of_right_revd._Sir_Wm._Ashburnham_%284672390%29.jpg/220px-Portrait_of_right_revd._Sir_Wm._Ashburnham_%284672390%29.jpg)
Sir William Ashburnham, 4th Baronet (16 January 1710 – 4 September 1797) was a Church of England priest and also a baronet.
Family[]
William Ashburnham was the son of Sir Charles Ashburnham, the 3rd baronet of Bromham, Guestling, Sussex. William succeeded to the title as 4th Baronet Ashburnham, on 3 October 1762. He married Margaret daughter of Thomas Pelham of Lewes, in Guestling and had a son William who became the M.P. for Hastings.[1]
Education[]
Ashburnham matriculated in 1728 and then went on to study at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he received a B.A. in 1732–1733.
William Ashburnham was elected a fellow[2] of Corpus Christi in 1733–1735, received his M.A. (Lit. Reg.[3] ) in 1739, and granted DD in 1749.[4]
Career[]
Ashburnham was ordained 1733 and appointed chaplain to the Royal Hospital Chelsea in 1741.[1] The following year, 1742 he became Vicar of St Peter Bexhill, Sussex.[5] He was made Dean of Chichester in 1742 and in 1743 canon residentiary of St Paul's Cathedral (a preferment he kept in commendam with the see[6]).[7] Then from 1754 he was Bishop of Chichester for 44 years till his death in 1797, one of the longest episcopates for the see of Chichester.[7] Ashburnham was also rector of Guestling, 1743–1797.[5]
During 1767, while Bishop of Chichester, Ashburnham was asked by the dean and chapter to reduce the number of professional adult male singers in the choir (known as lay vicars).[8] The establishment had been for eight.[8] Ashburnham issued statutes to reduce the number to four, their wages immediately being increased by dividing amongst them the stipend originally allotted to the whole body.[8]
The current Chichester Cathedral choir has an establishment for six lay vicars.[9]
William Ashburnham died 4 September 1797.[4]
Arms[]
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See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Kimber. The baronetage of England. p. 194
- ^ Fellow– A senior member of a college, supported to a greater or lesser extent by, or enjoying perquisites from the college's endowment.
- ^ .Lit. Reg.–Litterae Regiae: royal mandates directing the conferring of a degree
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Ashburnham, William (ASBN728W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Ashburnham, William (1733–1797) (CCEd Person ID 9372)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
- ^ Commendam–the temporary holding of a benefice, with the right to its revenues, by a cleric or layman in the absence of a proper incumbent: he was said to hold the benefice in commendam. [1]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Stephens. Memorials of the South Saxon See. p. 310
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Stephen . Memorials of the South Saxon See. p. 346
- ^ Chichester Cathedral choir information
- ^ Burke's Peerage. 1949.
Sources[]
- "Chichester Cathedral Website". The Dean and Chapter, Chichester Cathedral. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
- Camden, William (1701). Britannia Vol 1 (English ed.). London: Joseph Wild.
- Kimber, E; Johnson, R (1771). The baronetage of England: containing a genealogical and Historical Account of all the English Baronets. London: G. Woodfall, J. Fuller, E. Johnson et al.
- Lower, Mark Anthony (1865). The Worthies of Sussex. Lewes, Sussex: Sussex Advertiser.
- Morris, John, ed. (1976). Domesday Book: Sussex. Chichester: Phillimore. ISBN 0-85033-145-5.
- "National archives". UK Government. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
- Stephens, W.R.W. (1876). Memorials of the South Saxon See and Cathedral Church of Chichester. London: Bentley.
- Venn, J; Venn, J. A., eds. (1922–1958). Alumni Cantabrigienses (10 vols). Cambridge University Press.
- 1710 births
- 1797 deaths
- Bishops of Chichester
- Deans of Chichester
- Baronets in the Baronetage of England
- Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
- Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge