3-008-899 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Dr. John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1862. Engraving from a photograph by John and Charles Watkins. 'Shortly after his ordination, he was appointed to an assistant-mastership at Eton...The duties of a master at Eton did not exclusively occupy his attention; he was a writer also...In 1816 he won the second prize...for a treatise on "The Evidences." He published this essay in 1817, under the title of "A Treatise on the Records of the Creation and on Moral Attributes of the Creator." The "Evidences of Christianity, Derived from its Nature and Reception," and "Sermons on the Christian Faith and Character," also productions of his pen, went to increase his reputation as an author. He was made, in 1820, a Canon of Durham; he was consecrated Bishop of Chester in 1828, and translated to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury in 1848...His Grace, during his long public career, rarely spoke in the House of Lords on subjects not relating to the Church. Soon after his elevation to the see of Chester he voted for Catholic emancipation. Latterly he strongly opposed the admission of Jews into Parliament; and in the Divorce Bill strenuously objected to the proposed clause allowing the marriage of the offending parties'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.