Background
Reginald Heber was born on April 21, 1783 in United Kingdom.
Hodnet in Shropshire, where Heber spent his early years
bishop man of letters hymn-writer
Reginald Heber was born on April 21, 1783 in United Kingdom.
At the age of eight the younger Reginald began five years at the local grammar school at Whitchurch. In 1796 he was sent to Bristow's, a small private school in Neasden a few miles north of Central London. This provided intensive learning for around a dozen boys, preparing them for eventual entry to Oxford or Cambridge. At Bristow's he met John Thornton, who became a lifelong friend.
In October 1800 Reginald Heber entered Brasenose College, Oxford. In his first year, Reginald Heber won the University Prize for Latin Verse, and began to develop local repute as a Romantic poet. In 1803 he entered a long poem, "Palestine", for the Newdigate Prize. The poem was enthusiastically received when he declaimed it at that year's Encaenia ceremony. It was later published and set to music by William Crotch, who had been professor of music at Oxford since 1797.
The death of Reginald Senior in February 1804 left the living of parish of St Luke, Hodnet vacant, and may have prompted Heber's decision to seek ordination, though he delayed it for some years. In his degree examinations he did honourably rather than brilliantly. He took his bachelor's degree in the summer of 1804 and was elected to a fellowship of All Souls College, Oxford. He also won the University's Bachelor's Prize for an English prose essay.
Reginald Heber was ordained as deacon at the end of February 1807 and received full priest's orders from the Bishop of Oxford on 24 May 1807. In September 1813 he preached a sermon in Shrewsbury to the British and Foreign Bible Society, a missionary organisation of which he had been a member since his undergraduate days. He refused an appointment as a canon at Durham, preferring to continue his work in Hodnet in which, after 1814, he was assisted by his younger brother, the Revd Thomas Heber, who served as his curate until his death, at the age of 31, in 1816.
In 1817 Reginald Heber accepted the post of canon at St Asaph, the relative proximity of which enabled the extra duties to be carried out without interfering with his parish work. His main literary task during these years was a biography and critical study of the complete works of the 17th-century cleric Jeremy Taylor. In 1822 Reginald Heber was elected to the church office of Preacher of Lincoln's Inn, which would require a regular term of residence in London.
The see of Calcutta had been established in 1814. It covered much of the Indian subcontinent and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), together with Australia and parts of southern Africa. The first bishop, Thomas Middleton, who had been consecrated in 1814, died in office in July 1822. At the time the head of the Indian Board of Control was Charles Williams-Wynn, an old Oxford friend of Heber's. In December 1822 Williams-Wynn wrote to Heber, not directly offering his friend the post - the wording appeared to anticipate a refusal - but nevertheless leaving Heber the opportunity to claim the office, should he wish. Reginald Heberhad a longstanding interest in the work of overseas missions. He was attracted to the post, his interest in distant places having been stimulated by his early travels. He spent the next few months at Hodnet preparing for his departure; during this period he gave a farewell sermon at Oxford, after which the degree of Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) was conferred on him. On 1 June 1823 Heber was formally consecrated as Bishop of Calcutta at Lambeth Palace, by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The new bishop arrived in Calcutta on 10 October 1823. After his ceremonial installation by the Governor General, Lord Amherst, he preached his first sermon as bishop on Sunday 12 October, in St John's Cathedral Church. In June 1824 Reginald Heber, using a power provided to him by recent Act of Parliament, ordained as deacon the first native Indian to receive Holy Orders.
On 15 June 1824 Reginald Heber set out on a tour of northern India, accompanied by his personal chaplain, Martin Stowe, and Daniel Corrie, the Archdeacon of Calcutta. Reginald Heber wished to pass on to the Governor General, Lord Amherst, much of what he had learned and observed on his long voyage, and on his return to Calcutta busied himself with a series of detailed reports.
In spite of the pressures on his time, Reginald Heber set out again on 30 January 1826, this time heading south for Madras (now Chennai), Pondicherry, Tanjore (Thanjavur) and ultimately Travancore. One reason for the tour was to examine the issue of caste, which persisted in the church in South India. In Tanjore on Easter Day, 26 March 1826, Reginald Heber preached to more than 1300, and on the following day conducted a confirmation service for a large Tamil congregation. On 1 April he moved on to Trichinopoly (Tiruchirappalli) where, next day, he confirmed 42 people. On 3 April, after attending an early-morning service at which he gave a blessing in the Tamil language, Reginald Heber returned to his bungalow for a cold bath. Immediately after plunging into the water he died, possibly from the shock of the cold water in the intense heat. His funeral was held the next day at St John's church, where he had preached his final sermon; he was buried within the church, on the north side of the altar.
On 9 April 1809 Reginald Heber married Amelia Shipley, the youngest daughter of the Dean of St Asaph. On 24 December 1818, his daughter dead after a short illness. Two more daughters were born later, in 1821 and 1824 respectively; both lived to adulthood.