James Atlay (3 July 1817 – 24 December 1894) was an English churchman, Bishop of Hereford from 1868 to 1894.

Life

James Atlay was born in

Wakerley Wakerley is a linear village and civil parish in the county of Northamptonshire, England. Forming part of North Northamptonshire, Wakerley is close to, and south of, the River Welland that forms the boundary with Rutland; its nearest neighbour, ...

, Northamptonshire, the son of Henry Atlay (Rector of

Great Casterton Great Casterton is a village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is located at the crossing of the Roman Ermine Street and the River Gwash. Geography The village is approximately three miles to the nor ...

) and Elizabeth Rayner Hovell. His younger brother Brownlow Atlay (1832–1912) was Archdeacon of Calcutta. Educated at

Oakham School (Like runners, they pass on the torch of life) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president ...

, Atlay entered St John's College, Cambridge, where he held a fellowship from 1846 to 1859. He was vicar of

Madingley Madingley is a small village near Cambridge, England. It is located close to the nearby villages of Coton and Dry Drayton on the western outskirts of Cambridge. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 210. The village was kno ...

, near Cambridge, from 1847 to 1852, and Queen's preacher at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 1857. He occupied the position of a senior tutor in his college at the time he was elected in 1859 to the vicarage of

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

. Atlay was appointed 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 ...

in 1861. In 1867, he refused the bishopric of Calcutta, but in the following year accepted the bishopric of Hereford, in succession to Renn Hampden. He possessed great organising ability and an attractive personality and was described by Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, as "the most beautiful combination of enthusiasm, manliness and modesty."

Family

Atlay married in 1859 Frances Turner, younger daughter of William Martin, a major of the Bengal Army. Atlay died on 24 December 1894 aged 77 and is buried in Hereford Cathedral where he has a magnificent memorial in the north transept, the work of James Forsyth. Among his children was George William Atlay, who was murdered by a party of Ngoni people while attached to the Universities' Mission to Central Africa at Likoma,

Lake Nyasa Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

. His son James Bereford Atlay (1860–1912), known as J. B. Atlay, was author of ''The Trial of Lord Cochrane'' (1897), ''Famous Trials of the 19th Century'' (1899), and other works of legal history. On the completion of his episcopate, Astay was presented with a picture of himself by

Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne (1854–1921) was a leading British late Pre-Raphaelite painter of portraits and subject pictures, who in later life became one of the country's best known creators of decorative art for churches. Family and Early ...

from the Diocese of Hereford. In 1893, another portrait was painted by John Collier. Both were in the possession of Mrs. Atlay, and replicas of the latter were hung in the Bishop's Palace, Hereford, and in the combination room at St John's College, Cambridge.

References

Sources

1817 births 1894 deaths People educated at Oakham School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge Bishops of Hereford Burials at Hereford Cathedral People from North Northamptonshire People from Great Casterton 19th-century Church of England bishops {{ChurchofEngland-bishop-stub