Background
James Atlay was the son of Rev Henry Atlay and Elizabeth Rayner Hovell.
James Atlay was the son of Rev Henry Atlay and Elizabeth Rayner Hovell.
Street John"s College.
Educated at Oakham School, he entered Street John"s College, Cambridge, where he held a fellowship from 1846 to 1859. He was vicar of Madingley, near Cambridge, from 1847 to 1852, and Queen"s preacher at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 1857. He occupied the position of a senior tutor in his college at the time he was elected in 1859 to the vicarage of Leeds.
Doctor Atlay was appointed a canon of Ripon Cathedral in 1861.
In 1867, he refused the bishopric of Calcutta, but in the following year accepted the bishopric of Hereford, in succession to Doctor Hampden. He possessed great organising ability and an attractive personality and was described by Archbishop Benson as "the most beautiful combination of enthusiasm, manliness and modesty."
The Rt.
Review James Atlay Doctor of Divinity died on 24 December 1894 aged 77 and is buried in Hereford Cathedral where he has a magnificent memorial in the north transept.