Bickersteth, Edward Henry

BICKERSTETH, EDWARD HENRY: Bishop of Exeter, son of Edward Bickersteth, 1; b. at Islington, London, Jan. 25, 1825; d. in London May 16, 1906. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., 1847), and was ordered deacon in 1848, and ordained priest in the following year. He was curate of Banningham, Norfolk (1848–51); rector of Hinton Martell, Dorset (1852–55); vicar of Christ Church, Hampstead (1855–85); rural dean of Highgate (1878–85), and dean of Gloucester (1885). He was consecrated bishop of Exeter in 1885, but resigned five years later on account of age. He wrote Water from the Well Spring (London, 1852); The Rock of Ages (1857); Commentary on the New Testament (1864); Yesterday, To-day, and Forever (poem in twelve books, 1866; prized as a devout revelation of heaven); The Spirit of Life (1869); Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer (1870); The Two Brothers and Other Poems, (1871); The Reef and Other Parables (1873); The Shadowed Home and the Light Beyond (1874); Words of Counsel to the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of Exeter (1888); Charge at Third Visitation (1895); From Year to Year (1895); The Feast of Divine Love (1896); and Charge at Fourth Visitation (1898). He was the author of a number of well-known hymns.

Bibliography: F. K. Aglionby, Life of E. H. Bickersteth, London, 1907.