Up for auction the "Bishop of Durham" Edward Maltby Clipped Signature Mounted. 

ES-3395D

Edward Maltby (6

April 1770 – 3 July 1859) was an English clergyman of the Church of England. He became Bishop of Durham, controversial for his liberal politics, for

his slightly naive ecumenism, and for the great personal

wealth that he amassed. Maltby was born in Norwich. He was the fourth son of George (died 1794), a weaver and deacon at the Presbyterian Octagon Chapel, and Mary

(died 1804), his wife. William Maltby was a cousin. Though presbyterian by

persuasion, the family were not hostile to the Anglican Church. Maltby attended Norwich Grammar School,

where he became close to headteacher Samuel Parr but when Parr retired in 1785, he transferred

to Winchester College under Joseph Warton. William Enfield also reputedly played a part in his

education. In 1784, Maltby's cousin Elizabeth had married George Pretyman and

Pretyman sponsored Maltby's entry into Pembroke College,

Cambridge in 1789. Maltby was a distinguished scholar and, finding

his nonconformist inclinations

no barrier, he graduated as eighth wrangler in

1792, receiving his DD in 1806. In 1794,

Maltby had become domestic chaplain to

Pretyman. Maltby consequently received a Lincoln prebend and two vicarages: Buckden, Huntingdonshire and Holbeach, Lincolnshire. On 10 July he married Mary Harvey. The

couple were to go on to have four sons. With Pretyman's patronage and a

well-received book of apologetics, Maltby was strongly favoured

for eventual elevation to a bishop. However, Maltby meddled in politics

prematurely. His involvement in the 1807 general

election in Huntingdonshire and

an 1809 pamphlet criticising what he saw as the nepotism of prime minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland saw to

it that he found no favour with the Tory establishment

who were to hold power until 1830. However, Parr interceded with George Canning and Maltby became preacher at Gray's Inn in 1817 and Lincoln's Inn between 1824 and 1835. Maltby took the

opportunity of light clerical duties to tutor private pupils, including:

·        

Edward Bouverie Pusey;

·        

Edward Hall Alderson; and

·        

Charles James Blomfield,

for no fee, so impressed was Maltby;

He also found time to write including publication of a collection of hymns

(1815) and a projected, but uncompleted, edition of the New Testament. Mary died in 1825 and he married Margaret Green

in 1826. Maltby was active in the Society for

the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge and he was a senator of the

newly formed London University (now University College London), blessing the foundation stone of the Main Building in 1827. When the Whigs returned to

power in 1830, prime minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl

Grey lacked a comfortable majority in the House of Lords and saw Maltby as a probable supporter if

he could be appointed to the Lords Spiritual. Conveniently for Grey, Folliott Cornewall, Bishop of Worcester, died in September 1831. Grey

transferred Robert Carr, then Bishop of Chichester, to

Worcester and then appointed Maltby to Chichester. Grey made the appointment

with such undue haste that Maltby's congé d'élire arrived

in Chichester before Cornewall's funeral and the public was scandalised.

However, Grey was satisfied when Maltby was able to vote in favour of the Reform Bill. In 1837, Maltby became Bishop of Durham, the first after the abolition of the office

of Prince-Bishop. In

1847, John Russell, 1st Earl

Russell, a close personal friend, canvassed him as Archbishop of York but

Maltby felt the role too much for his years.