Markham, William, 1719-1807

Person

Markham, William, 1719-1807

1719-1807

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.

Markham, John, 1761-1827 (1761-1827)

Markham, Osborne, 1769-1827 (1769-1827)

GB-2014-WSA-00977

GB 2014

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition

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Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020

Users should note that the information recorded here that is not to be found in the first two volumes of the Record of Old Westminsters and its first Supplement has been assembled from various published and manuscript sources by Hugh Edmund Pagan MA FSA, and all new resulting text is his copyright, © 2014.

The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from the earliest times to 1927, Volumes 1 & 2, compiled by G. F. Russell Barker and Alan H. Stenning, London, 1928.