Rev. Robert John Eden

Bishop of Sodor and Man 1847-54; Bishop of Bath and Wells 1854-69

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Robert John Eden, 3rd Baron Auckland (10 July 1799 – 25 April 1870), styled The Honourable Robert Eden from birth until 1849, was a British clergyman. He was Bishop of Sodor and Man from 1847 to 1854 and Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1854 to 1869.

Background and education

Born at Eden Farm, Beckenham, Kent, he was third son of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland and his wife Eleanor Elliot, oldest daughter of Sir Gilbert Elliot, 3rd Baronet. His older brother was George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, his uncles were Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet, of Maryland and Morton Eden, 1st Baron Henley. Eden was sent to Eton in 1814 and went then to Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he proceeded Master of Arts five years later. In 1847, he received a Bachelor of Divinity and a Doctor of Divinity by the University of Cambridge. When his brother George died in 1849, he succeeded him not in the earldom, however in the barony, conferred upon their father.

Career

Eden was ordained in 1822 and was appointed rector of Eyam in Derbyshire in the next year. He was transferred to Hertingfordbury, near Hertford in 1825, a post he held for a decade. Subsequently, Eden served as vicar of Battersea until 1847. He was likewise nominated chaplain to King William IV in 1831 and after the latter's death in 1837 to Queen Victoria for the next ten years. On 23 May 1847, Eden was consecrated Bishop of Sodor and Man, and installed at Castletown on 29 June. He was translated to the see of Bath and Wells on 2 June 1854, which he held until his resignation on 6 September 1869.

Author

Eden was the author of A Reply to a Letter to the Bishop of Bath and Wells on the subject of the recent Restoration of the Parish Church of Kingsbury Episcopi, by George Parsons (1854), Charges of the Bishop of Bath and Wells (3 vols. 1855, 1858, and 1861), and The Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland, edited by the Bishop of Bath and Wells (1860). He was moderate in his views, but inclining to the high church school.

Family

Lord Auckland married Mary Hurt, eldest daughter of Francis Edward Hurt of Alderwasley, Derbyshire, on 15 September 1825. They had five sons and five daughters. She died on 25 November 1872. Auckland died at the Bishop's Palace, Wells on 25 April 1870, and was buried in the Palm churchyard, near Wells Cathedral, four days later. His third son Ashley Eden was a diplomat. The eldest child, Eleanor Eden, was a novelist, and editor of the letters of Emily Eden, her aunt. She was born in 1826; other daughters included: Emily Dulcibella (born 1832); Florence Selina (born 1835); and Maria Harriet (born 1836).