John Dowden /d͡ʒɒn ˈdaʊdən/ (29 June 1840 – 30 January 1910) was an
Irish-born bishop and ecclesiastical historian. He served in the
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland.
A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...
as the
Bishop of Edinburgh
The Bishop of Edinburgh, or sometimes the Lord Bishop of Edinburgh is the ordinary of the Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh.
Prior to the Reformation, Edinburgh was part of the Diocese of St Andrews, under the Archbishop of St Andrews ...
.
Life
He was born in
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
*** Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known a ...
on 29 June 1840, as the fifth of five children of John Wheeler Dowden and Alicia Bennett. His famous brother was the poet, professor and literary critic
Edward Dowden
Edward Dowden (3 May 18434 April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet.
Biography
He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edinbur ...
. Although his father was
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their na ...
, John followed his mother by becoming an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Euro ...
, although he attended both churches in his youth. When he was sixteen he became a student at
Queen's College, Cork as a medical student. John began encountering health problems, problems which made it difficult to pursue his original career. In 1858, while contemplating a religious career, he enrolled at
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
. He graduated in 1864 and was ordained as a deacon, moving to
Sligo. In the same year he married, wedding a woman named Louisa Jones, by whom he would eventually father six children. John was ordained as a priest in 1865, and moved through a variety of positions slowly rising in prestige. John continued his studies and received a
Bachelor of Divinity
In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD or BDiv; la, Baccalaureus Divinitatis) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theolog ...
(BD) degree from Trinity College.
In 1886, he was consecrated as the Episcopalian
bishop of Edinburgh
The Bishop of Edinburgh, or sometimes the Lord Bishop of Edinburgh is the ordinary of the Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh.
Prior to the Reformation, Edinburgh was part of the Diocese of St Andrews, under the Archbishop of St Andrews ...
and served in
St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore o ...
's West End and served this role until death. In the late 19th century he lived at 10 Gillsland Road in the Merchiston district of Edinburgh, but in his later years he lived at 13 Learmonth Terrace, a substantial Victorian terraced house, west of the cathedral.
He died in Edinburgh on 30 January 1910 and is buried in the Victorian north extension of
Dean Cemetery in western
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore o ...
. He is buried with his wife Louisa and son
John Wheeler Dowden
John Wheeler Dowden, FRCSEd (1 October 1866 – 8 March 1936) was a surgeon, born in Ireland, who worked for most of his career at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. He was president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1931 to 19 ...
LLD
Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...
,
FRCSEd (1866–1936), who was
president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
His memorial in St Marys Cathedral was designed by Sir
Robert Lorimer
Sir Robert Stodart Lorimer, KBE (4 November 1864 – 13 September 1929) was a prolific Scottish architect and furniture designer noted for his sensitive restorations of historic houses and castles, for new work in Scots Baronial and Goth ...
in 1911.
[Dictionary of Scottish Architects: Robert Lorimer]
Scholarly work
As a scholar, he was author of many works of thorough scholarship, including ''The Medieval Church in Scotland: its constitution, organisation and law'' (1910) and ''The Bishops of Scotland: being notes on the lives of all the bishops, under each of the sees, prior to the Reformation'' (1912). Both were published posthumously by James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow. The former, although extremely dated, is still regarded as one of the main starting points in medieval Scottish ecclesiastical history, and the latter remains to this day one of the most comprehensive guides to medieval Scottish episcopal
prosopography
Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a group of people, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable. Research subjects are analysed by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line an ...
. An earlier work, ''The Workmanship of the Prayer Book: In Its Literary and Liturgical Aspects'', (London: Methuen, 1899) remains an indispensable analysis of the background to and ethos of the Book of Common Prayer.
Dowden gave the
Rhind lectures in 1901, on "The Constitution, Organisation, and Law of the Mediaeval Church in Scotland".
References
Further reading
*Dowden, Alice (1910) "Biographical sketch" in: Dowden, John: ''The Medieval Church in Scotland''
*
*Watt, D. E. R., "Scotland: Religion and Piety", in Steve Rigby (ed.), ''A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages'', (Oxford, 2003), pp. 396–410 (info on p. 396)
External links
*
Bibliographic directoryfrom
Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowden, John
1840 births
1910 deaths
Bishops of Edinburgh
19th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops
20th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops
Alumni of Queens College Cork
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
Irish Anglicans
Converts to Anglicanism from Presbyterianism