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| Richard Terrick | |
|---|---|
| Name | Richard Terrick |
| Birth date | 1710 |
| Birth place | London, England |
| Death date | 1777 |
| Death place | London, England |
| Occupation | Clergyman, bishop |
| Nationality | English |
Richard Terrick was an English Anglican prelate who rose through the Church of England to become Bishop of London in the mid-18th century. He served in prominent dioceses during the reigns of George II and George III, participating in ecclesiastical, political, and intellectual networks of Georgian Britain. His career intersected with major figures and institutions in religion, state, and academia.
Born in 1710 in London, he was the son of a family connected to London civic life and clerical circles. He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge and later became associated with Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; his academic progression included degrees awarded by the University of Cambridge. While a student he encountered clerics and scholars tied to Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, and the diocesan structures of Canterbury and York. His formation reflected connections to patrons within the Tory and Whig factions active in the Parliament of Great Britain.
His early appointments included curacies and livings in parishes under the patronage of members of the House of Lords and landed families from Kent and Hertfordshire. He held prebendal stalls associated with Lincoln Cathedral and positions connected to the Chaplaincy to the King. Advancement brought him into the episcopal patronage system managed by the Prime Minister and secretaries such as Henry Pelham and later administrators linked to William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. He was appointed to episcopal office in the 1750s, assuming duties that tied him to the administration of the Church of England and oversight of clergy in dioceses influenced by metropolitan authorities in Canterbury.
Elevated to the see of London, he became one of the most senior bishops, presiding over matters at St Paul's Cathedral and participating in the coronation rites for members of the House of Hanover. As Bishop of London he had jurisdiction over parishes in Middlesex, engaged with the Court of Arches, and worked alongside officials from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Privy Council on ecclesial discipline and appointments. His episcopacy coincided with urban expansion in London, the growth of charitable institutions such as Guy's Hospital and St Bartholomew's Hospital, and debates that involved figures like Samuel Johnson, John Wesley, and theologians from Oxford University and Cambridge University.
He maintained correspondence and professional relationships with leading statesmen and churchmen including members of the Clergy of the Church of England, bishops like Thomas Secker and Hugh Boulter, and political actors such as Robert Walpole and George Grenville. Controversies during his tenure touched on patronage and pluralism, generating criticism from reform-minded clerics associated with Methodism and critics like William Law and later polemicists connected to the Enlightenment network that encompassed David Hume, Edward Gibbon, and John Locke's intellectual legacy. His decisions on appointments and ecclesiastical discipline were debated in pamphlets circulated in the London bookselling trade and reviewed in periodicals linked to The Gentleman's Magazine and newspaper factions aligned with The Spectator tradition.
He married into families allied with the City of London mercantile class and the county gentry, creating kinship ties to estates in Surrey and Essex. His will and estate administration involved lawyers connected to the Court of Chancery and executors who served in civic roles within the City of London Corporation. Posthumously, his reputation was treated in biographical notices alongside other Georgian prelates in works by antiquarians from the Society of Antiquaries of London and clerical historians associated with Lambeth Palace Library. His legacy includes sermons and pastoral correspondence that survive in collections related to St Paul's Cathedral and archival holdings at Cambridge University Library and influenced debates on episcopal patronage in subsequent reforms under figures such as William Wilberforce and Charles James Fox.
Category:1710 births Category:1777 deaths Category:Bishops of London Category:18th-century Anglican bishops