William Boyd Carpenter

Sir William Boyd Carpenter (26 March 1841 – 26 October 1918) was an English clergyman of the Established church, Bishop of Ripon.

He was born in Liverpool, was educated at the Royal Institution, Liverpool, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and was appointed Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge in 1878. In 1887 he was appointed Bampton lecturer at Oxford, and in 1895 pastoral lecturer on theology at Cambridge. He held several curacies, was vicar of Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, from 1879 to 1884, canon of Windsor in 1882–84, and after 1884 Bishop of Ripon. In 1904 and 1913 he visited the United States and delivered the Noble lectures at Harvard. He was chaplain in ordinary to Queen Victoria, Edward VII, and George V. He resigned his see in 1911 on the grounds of ill-health and became a canon and sub-dean of Westminster. He was interested in eugenic issues and served as President of the Society for Psychical Research in 1912.

Publications

His publications include:
* "Commentary on Revelation" (1879)
* "Permanent Elements of Religion" (Bampton lectures, 1889)
* "Popular History of the Church of England" (1900)
* "Witness to the Influence of Christ" (1905)
* "Some Pages of my Life" (1911)
* "Life's Tangled Thread" (1912)
* "The Apology of Experience" (1913)

External links

* David Morris, "Bishop Boyd Carpenter: Sheep or Shepherd in the Eugenics Movement?", "Galton Institute Newsletter" 55 (June 2005) [http://www.galtoninstitute.org.uk/Newsletters/GINL0506/bishop_boyd_carpenter.htm]

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