MARKHAM, WILLIAM, eldest son of Maj. William Markham, Barrack-Master of Kinsale, co. Cork, and Elizabeth, dau. of George Markham, Worksop, Notts.; bapt. 9 Apr 1719; adm. (aged 14) 21 Jun 1733; KS (Capt. ) 1734; elected to Christ Church, Oxford 1738, matr. 6 Jun 1738, Westminster Student 23 Dec 1738 – void by marriage 18 Jun 1759, Tutor 1742-52, Junior Censor 1751; BA 1742; MA 1745; BCL and DCL 1752; adm. Gray’s Inn 29 Jan 1742/3; ordained priest (Oxford) 17 Dec 1748; Head Master of the School Feb 1753 – Mar 1764; Chaplain in Ordinary to George II 1756 (still 1760); Prebendary of Durham 22 Jun 1759 – Feb 1771; Dean of Rochester 20 Feb 1765 – Oct 1767; Vicar of Boxley, Kent 1765-71; Dean of Christ Church, Oxford 23 Oct 1767 – Jan 1777; consecrated Bishop of Chester 17 Feb 1771; Preceptor to Prince of Wales and Prince Frederick 12 Apr 1771 – 28 May 1776; Archbishop of York from 20 Jan 1777; Lord High Almoner from 21 Jan 1777; Privy Councillor 31 Jan 1777; attacked in House of Lords by Duke of Grafton and Earl of Shelburne 30 May 1777, for having preached doctrines subversive of the Constitution in a sermon at St. Mary-le-Bow Feb 1777; Markham’s “pernicious” doctrines were also attacked by Earl of Chatham; had a narrow escape at his house in Bloomsbury Square during Gordon Riots; at one time an intimate friend of Edmund Burke, whose Philiosophical Enquiry, 1756, he corrected for the press, and afterwards revised; a staunch friend and supporter of Warren Hastings (qv); “our great glory”, wrote Jeremy Bentham (qv), “was Dr. Markham : he was a tall portly man and “high he held his head” … We stood prodigiously in awe of him; indeed he was an object of adoration” (Bentham, Works, 1843, x, 30); during his Head mastership the old Granary in Dean’s Yard was removed and the houses on the Terrace probably built; donor of the scenes for the Latin Play, designed by James Stuart and in use from 1758 to 1808; Busby Trustee 18 Mar 1756; m. 16 Jun 1759 Sarah, dau. of John Goddard, Rotterdam, merchant; d. 3 Nov 1807. Buried North Cloister, Westminster Abbey. DNB.
