Transcript

of

Charles William Stubbs [Obituary]

Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol.  44, (1912). pp. 42-43.

by

Maxwell Adams (Ed.)

Prepared by Michael Steer

The obituary was presented at the Association’s July 1912 Exeter meeting. A short obituary to the bishop, with his portrait (also in the National Trust Collection), and a list of seven of his publications, is available on the hymntime.com webpage. On February 6, 1907, Vanity Fair, the celebrated monthly magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published an engaging caricature of Bishop Stubbs, available in Wikidata. His obituary may be found in a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal that can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Dr. Stubbs was the only son of Mr. Charles Stubbs, of Liverpool, in which city he was born on 3 September, 1845. Educated at the Royal Institution School, Liverpool, where Bishop Boyd-Carpenter was a contemporary, he gained a mathematical exhibition at Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge. In 1868 he graduated in mathematical honours, and was ordained the same year to the curacy of St. Mary's, Sheffield; and three years later preferred to the vicarage of Granborough, Bucks, where he remained thirteen years. From 1884 to 1888 he was Vicar of Stokenham, Devon, and in the latter year was preferred to the rectory of Wavertree, Liverpool, where he came under the notice of Mr. Gladstone, who six years later promoted him to the Deanery of Ely in succession to Dr. Merivale, the famous historian. The University of Cambridge now conferred on him the degree of D.D. honoris causa, and in 1906 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman nominated him to the See of Truro. In 1881 he received the first of several invitations to preach before Cambridge University, and in 1883 came his first appointment as Select Preacher at Oxford. In 1904 he was elected Honorary Fellow of Sidney-Sussex College, and was Hulsean Lecturer for 1904-5, when he delivered the lectures, afterwards published in a book, entitled The Christ of English Poetry. In 1900 he preached before the University of Harvard the well-known sermon, The Creed of Christian Socialism, having previously, in 1896, published a book on the same subject.
Bishop Stubbs possessed distinct poetic gifts and published four volumes of verse, the most recent volume being Cornish Bells, which appeared in 1910. His nine volumes of sermons, lectures, and addresses deal with social problems.
He was President of this Association in 1909 when it met at Launceston.
He married Harriet, third daughter of William Turner, of Liverpool, and leaves six sons and two daughters. He died on 4 May, 1912. His body was cremated, and the urn containing the ashes placed in Truro Cathedral.