Background
The son of Henry Blunt and his wife Mary Atkinson, he was born at Dulwich, 12 August, and was baptised at the chapel of Dulwich College, 20 August 1794.
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Henry Blunt
Edit ProfileEducation
He was educated at Merchant Taylors" School, which he entered in 1806, and left for Pembroke College, Cambridge, as Parkin exhibitioner, in 1813.
Career
He introduced an early parish magazine, Poor Churchman"s Evening Companion, in his London parish of Chelsea. He took his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1817, and became fellow of his college. Blunt was ordained on his fellowship by William Howley, Bishop of London, receiving deacon"s orders 5 July 1818 and priest"s orders 20 December of the same year.
After having filled preacherships at the Philanthropic Institution of London, Park Chapel in Chelsea, and Grosvenor Chapel, in 1820 he was appointed vicar of Clare, Suffolk, where he took private pupils.
In 1824 Gerald Valerian Wellesley, a brother of the Duke of Wellington and then rector of Chelsea, London, induced Blunt to become his curate. He was there for six years, making a reputation as a preacher, and on the erection of Trinity Church, in Sloane Street in 1830, he was appointed its first incumbent, becoming a rector 15 June 1832.
That year Lord Cadogan offered Blunt Street Luke"s Church, Chelsea as well, but was turned down. In 1835 he was presented by the Duke of Bedford to the rectory of Streatham, Surrey.
Lung disease compelled Blunt to pass winters at health resorts, and he died in his rectory, 20 July 1843, in his 49th year.
He was buried at Streatham. As a churchman, Blunt was an evangelical opposed to tractarianism. Before he went to college, he, with a future brother-in-law, had established the first Sunday school at Chelsea at the Clock House.
He introduced bible and communicants" classes, and published the first parish magazine, called the Poor Churchman"s Evening Companion.
On 21 December 1820 Blunt married Julia Ann Nailer, one of six daughters of a merchant in Chelsea.
