Background
Bather was the eldest son of the Review John Bather, Master of Arts, vicar of Meol, Shrewsbury, by Martha Hannah, daughter of the Review James Hallifax, Doctor of Divinity, rector of Whitchurch, Shropshire.
In 1804 he was presented to the vicarage of Meol-Brace by his mother, an executrix of his father, and in 1828 he was collated to the archdeaconry of Shropshire and the prebend of Ufton in the church of Lichfield.
Education
Rugby School; Oriel College.
Career
He was educated at the Royal Free Grammar School, Shrewsbury, at Rugby School, and at Oriel College, Oxford (Bachelor 1803, Master of Arts 1808). He died at Meol Brace on 3 October 1847. He had no issue by either of these marriages.
A portrait of Archdeacon Bather, painted by William Etty, Resident Advisor, and engraved by Samuel Cousins, Associate of the Royal Academy, was published in 1838.
He enjoyed a high reputation as a preacher, and published Sermons, chiefly Practical, 3 volumes, London, 1827-1840, Octavo. Also many miscellaneous discourses, including a funeral sermon on the death of Bishop Butler, his father-in-law, and fourteen charges delivered to the clergy of the archdeaconry of Shrewsbury.
A posthumous work by him, Hints on the Art of Catechizing was published at London by his widow in 1848 (3rd edit 1852). A collection of Sermons on Old Testament Histories, selected from his parochial discourses, appeared in 1850.
And a selection from his charges, On some Ministerial Duties: Catechizing, Preaching, &c., was edited, with a preface, by Charley John Vaughan, Doctor of Divinity, master of the Temple, London, 1876.