Walter John Trower

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(5 April 1804 – 24 October 1877) was an

Anglican Anglicanism is a 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 Europe. It is one of th ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

Early life

He was born on 5 April 1804 in Hanover Square in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

the son of John Trower and his first wife Jane James, daughter of Sir Walter James 1st Baronet. A younger half-brother was Charles Francis Trower. Around 1819/20 the family moved to Muntham Court at

Findon, West Sussex Findon is a semi-rural clustered village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Worthing. Governance An electoral ward in the same name. This ward stretches south west to Patching with ...

. He studied Divinity at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

graduating BA in 1828 MA in 1829.

Career

In 1829 he became deacon of

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

, from 1830 to 1832 was curate at Crowpredy and from 1832 was briefly a priest at

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

before going to

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...

and in 1834 going to

Milland Milland is a village and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It is situated north of the A272 road on the border with Hampshire. In the 2001 census the parish covered and had 332 households with a total population ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. In 1839 he became rector of Wiston in

. Trower was

Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway The Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Scottish Episcopal Church Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway. Brief history When the dioceses of Glasgow and Galloway were combined in 1837, Michael ...

from 1848 to 1859. Elected by eight votes to seven, he was the first English cleric appointed to a Scottish bishopric who had not previously ministered in Scotland and therefore did not understand the traditions of 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 ...

. He condemned everything that seemed consistent with ritualistic developments 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 ...

and publicly opposed the eucharistic teaching of Bishop Alexander Forbes of Brechin. For half of his time as bishop he was not resident in the diocese. After a short period as

sub-dean {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019 A sub-dean is a person who acts as an assistant to a dean either in church circuit as a priest or minister or an academic institution. They are, however, not a vice-dean. A vice-dean is a person who can deputize a de ...

Exeter Cathedral Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The present building was complete by about 140 ...

, he was the Bishop of Gibraltar from 1863 to 1868. He lived at the Bishop's Palace in

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

on the island of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. He gained some notoriety during the election of

Frederick Temple Frederick Temple (30 November 1821 – 23 December 1902) was an English academic, teacher and churchman, who served as Bishop of Exeter (1869–1885), Bishop of London (1885–1896) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1896–1902). Early life T ...

as Bishop of Exeter when, on behalf of clergy who disapproved Temple's role as a contributor to the controversial ''

Essays and Reviews ''Essays and Reviews'', edited by John William Parker, published in March 1860, is a broad-church volume of seven essays on Christianity. The topics covered the biblical research of the German critics, the evidence for Christianity, religious tho ...

'', he instructed counsel to oppose the confirmation of the nomination which took place at St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, in December 1869. The opposition was unsuccessful. Temple went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury in 1896. He died aged 73 on 24 October 1877. A noted artist and author, two of his books have been republished in recent years.

Family

In 1829 he was married to his childhood sweetheart Elizabeth Goring of

Wiston House Wiston House is a 16th-century Grade I listed building set in the South Downs National Park on the south coast of England, surrounded by over of parkland in Wiston, West Sussex. It is the home of Wilton Park, an executive agency of the Foreign ...

(1799-1876). They had three daughters: Jane, Frances and Mary.

Publications

*''Exposition of the Gospels and Epistles'' (1840) *''Similitudes of Holy Scripture'' (1848)

Known art works

*''General View of the Alhambra'' (1865)

References

1804 births 1877 deaths 19th-century Scottish Episcopalian bishops 19th-century Anglican bishops of Gibraltar Bishops of Glasgow and Galloway Presidents of the Oxford Union People from Findon, West Sussex People from Wiston, West Sussex {{Gibraltar-bio-stub