Charles Dodgson (1800 – 21 June 1868) was an

Anglican cleric The Anglican ministry is both the leadership and agency of Christian service in the Anglican Communion. "Ministry" commonly refers to the office of ordained clergy: the ''threefold order'' of bishops, priests and deacons. More accurately, Anglica ...

, scholar and author. He was the father of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

. Charles Dodgson was born in 1800 in

Hamilton, Lanarkshire Hamilton ( sco, Hamiltoun; gd, Baile Hamaltan ) is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It sits south-east of Glasgow, south-west of Edinburgh and nor ...

, the son of Charles Dodgson, an army captain, and grandson of Charles Dodgson,

Bishop of Elphin The Bishop of Elphin (; ) is an episcopal title which takes its name after the village of Elphin, County Roscommon, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other b ...

. He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, where he graduated in 1821 with a double first in mathematics and classics. He was elected a

Student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...

of Christ Church and taught mathematics there until 1827. In 1827, Dodgson married his cousin, Frances Jane "Fanny" Lutwidge and was thereby required to give up his college position. He was appointed to a college

living Living or The Living may refer to: Common meanings *Life, a condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms ** Living species, one that is not extinct *Personal life, the course of an individual human's life * ...

perpetual curate Perpetual curate was a class of resident parish priest or incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England and Ireland from 1800 to 1871). The term is found in common use mainly du ...

All Saints' Church, Daresbury All Saints' Church is in the village of Daresbury, Cheshire, England. It is known for its association with Lewis Carroll who is commemorated in its stained glass windows depicting characters from '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. It is rec ...

. Ten of their eleven children, including Charles Lutwidge, were born here. The living was not a wealthy one and Dodgson ran a school in the village to supplement his income. In 1836 he was additionally appointed examining chaplain to

Charles Longley Charles Thomas Longley (28 July 1794 – 27 October 1868) was a bishop in the Church of England. He served as Bishop of Ripon, Bishop of Durham, Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1862 until his death. Life He was born at Roc ...

, the newly created

Bishop of Ripon The Bishop of Ripon is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. The bishop is one of the area bishops of the Diocese of Leeds in the Province of York. The area bishop of Ripon has oversight o ...

. During this period he and his wife educated all their children at home. The headmaster of Warrington School, Thomas Vere Bayne, who had studied at

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship St ...

, and who was a friend of Dodgson, used to walk over to visit Daresbury on Sundays, sometimes helping with the church services. Bayne would bring his son Vere, who became a lifelong friend of the young Charles Lutwidge. Other friends and visitors included Richard Durnford, Rector of

Middleton, Lancashire Middleton is a village and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, between Heysham and Overton. It had a population of 705 in 2011. Middleton was the location of Middleton Tower Holiday Camp, which opened in 1939. The ca ...

; Francis Egerton, Member of Parliament for

South Lancashire South Lancashire is a geographical county area, used to indicate the southern part of the historic county of Lancashire, today without any administrative purpose. The county region has no exact boundaries but generally includes areas that form t ...

and John Wilson Patten, MP for

North Lancashire North Lancashire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was represented by two Members of Parliament. The constituency was created by the Great Reform Act of 1832 by the splitting of Lancas ...

. Dodgson was concerned about the canal workers on the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was ...

running past his parish. Together with Egerton, who was a wealthy local landowner, he converted a barge into a floating chapel, moored at

Preston Brook Preston Brook is a village and civil parish in the borough of Halton, a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Cheshire in North West England. It is located to the south-east of Runcorn and south-west of Warrington, adjacent to the M56 ...

, and held weekly services there for the bargees. In 1843 Dodgson was given the Crown living of Croft, Yorkshire, by the Prime Minister,

Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

, at the urging of Longley. In 1852 he was additionally collated as a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Ripon Cathedral The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid, commonly known as Ripon Cathedral, and until 1836 known as Ripon Minster, is a cathedral in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England. Founded as a monastery by monks of the Irish tradition in the 660s, i ...

and in 1854 became the

Archdeacon of Richmond The Archdeacon of Richmond and Craven is an archdiaconal post in the Church of England. It was created in about 1088 within the See of York and was moved in 1541 to the See of Chester, in 1836 to the See of Ripon and after 2014 to the See of ...

. At Croft he restored the chancel of St Peter's Church and once again started a school, sacrificing part of the glebe to it. He taught there, as did his wife and later some of his children. Dodgson was a contemporary and college friend of

Edward Bouverie Pusey Edward Bouverie Pusey (; 22 August 180016 September 1882) was an English Anglican cleric, for more than fifty years Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. He was one of the leading figures in the Oxford Movement. Early years H ...

, a leader of the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

. Dodgson was a "Puseyite" and contributed the volume on

Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...

to Pusey's series ''

Library of the Fathers The ''Library of the Fathers'', more properly ''A library of fathers of the holy Catholic church: anterior to the division of the East and West'', was a series of around 50 volumes of the Church Fathers, annotated in English translation, publishe ...

''. All told he wrote twenty-four books on theology and religious subjects. Dodgson's wife died on 26 January 1851 and he died on 21 June 1868.

Notes

Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dodgson, Charles 1800 births 1868 deaths Archdeacons of Richmond Dodgson family People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford English Anglo-Catholics 19th-century English Anglican priests Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford People from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Anglo-Catholic clergy