Background
Gorham was born in Street Neots, Huntingdonshire.
Gorham was born in Street Neots, Huntingdonshire.
His legal recourse to being denied a certain post, subsequently taken to a secular court, caused great controversy. He was ordained in 1811, despite the misgivings of the Bishop of Ely, Thomas Dampier, who found Gorham"s views at odds with Anglican doctrine. After curacies in several parishes, he was instituted as vicar of Street Just in Penwith by Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, in 1846.
Upon examining him, Bishop Phillpotts took exception to Gorham"s view that baptismal regeneration was conditional and dependent upon a later personal adoption of promises made.
The Bishop found Gorham to be a Calvinist in this matter and hence unsuitable for the post. Gorham appealed to the ecclesiastical Court of Arches to compel the bishop to institute him but the court confirmed the bishop"s decision and awarded costs against Gorham.
Bishop Phillpotts repudiated the judgment and threatened to excommunicate the Archbishop of Canterbury and anyone who dared to institute Gorham. Gorham himself spent the rest of his life at his post in Brampford Speke.
As vicar, Gorham restored the church building, entirely rebuilding the tower, for which Bishop Phillpotts gave some money.
He was an antiquary of some reputation, and the author of a number of pamphlets.
Ecclesiastical lawyer Edward Lowth Badeley, a member of the Oxford movement, appeared before the Committee to argue the Bishop"s cause but eventually the Committee (in a split decision) reversed the Bishop"s and the Arches" decision on 9 March 1850, granting Gorham his institution.