Lord William Piercy Austin (7 November 18079 November 1892) was the inaugural and long serving

Bishop of Guyana The Anglican Diocese of Guyana is one of eight within the Church in the Province of the West Indies, Province of the West Indies. Its cathedral is St. George's Cathedral, Georgetown. The diocese came into being on 24 August 1842, when William Aust ...

from 1842 until his death.

Life

He was the son of William Austin (1759–1817), co-owner of the Land of Plenty plantation in British Guiana, and his wife Mehetabel Piercy; he was born in

Stone, Staffordshire Stone is a canal town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, north of Stafford, south of Stoke-on-Trent and north of Rugeley. It was an urban district council and a rural district council before becoming part of the Borough of Staffor ...

. He matriculated at

Exeter College, Oxford (Let Exeter Flourish) , old_names = ''Stapeldon Hall'' , named_for = Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter , established = , sister_college = Emmanuel College, Cambridge , rector = Sir Richard Trainor ...

in 1825, graduating B.A. 1829, and M.A. 1835.

Ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform ...

in 1831, Austin was in rapid succession curate,

vicar A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

and

Rural Dean In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion as well as some Lutheran denominations, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery); "ruridecanal" is the corresponding adjective ...

of Georgetown, then Archdeacon and Bishop. He was consecrated a bishop at

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

on 24 August 1842, to serve as first Bishop of British Guiana. In the words of the youthful

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

, he was "the youngest and handsomest of my Bishops." In 1884, Austin was appointed

Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

of the West Indies and in 1891,

Prelate of the Order of St Michael and St George A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

. In 1884, Austin founded the Anglican Grammar School for Boys, which was intended to educate the elite. The school was later renamed Queen's College, and has provided education for four Presidents, three Prime Ministers, among others.

Legacy

The Austin House, the official residence of the Anglican bishops of Guyana has been named after William Austin.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, William Piercy 1807 births People from Stone, Staffordshire Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford Anglican archdeacons in South America Deans of St George's Cathedral, Georgetown 19th-century Anglican bishops in the Caribbean Anglican bishops of Guyana 1892 deaths