Charles James Blomfield

Early life and education

Charles James Blomfield was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, the eldest son (and one of ten children) of Charles Blomfield (1763–1831), a schoolmaster (as was Charles James's grandfather, James Blomfield), JP and chief alderman of Bury St Edmunds, and his wife, Hester (1765–1844), daughter of Edward Pawsey, a Bury grocer. He was therefore unusual in becoming a Bishop of London not from an ecclesiastical, aristocratic or landowning background. His brother was Edward Valentine Blomfield, a classical scholar.

He was educated at the grammar school at Bury St Edmunds, declining a scholarship to Eton College after a brief stay there.

Blomfield matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1804. At Cambridge, he was tutored by John Hudson, mathematician and clergyman. Blomfield won the Browne medals for Latin and Greek odes, and the Craven scholarship. He graduated B.A. (3rd wrangler and 1st Chancellor's medal in classics) in 1808, M.A. in 1811, B.D. in 1818, D.D. (per lit. reg.) in 1820.

Career

Blomfield was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College in 1809. The first-fruits of his scholarship was an edition of the Prometheus of Aeschylus in 1810; this was followed by editions of the Septem contra Thebas, Persae, Choephori, and Agamemnon, of Callimachus, and of the fragments of Sappho, Sophron and Alcaeus.

Blomfield, however, soon ceased to devote himself entirely to scholarship. Ordained deacon in March 1810 and priest in June 1810, he held a curacy at Chesterford, then the following livings:

Rector of Quarrington, Lincolnshire (1810–20)

Rector of Dunton, Buckinghamshire (1811–17)

Rector of Tuddenham, Suffolk (1817–20)

Vicar and Rector of Little Chesterford, Essex (1817–24)

Rector of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, London (1820–28)

Whilst at Dunton he educated George Spencer (later Ignatius Spencer), and they corresponded for several years after. In 1817 he was appointed private chaplain to William Howley, Bishop of London. In 1819 he was nominated to the rich living of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, and in 1822 he became Archdeacon of Colchester. Two years later he was raised to the bishopric as Bishop of Chester where he carried through many much-needed reforms.

In 1828, he was appointed a Privy Counsellor and translated becoming Bishop of London, a post which he held for twenty-eight years making him the third longest-serving post reformation incumbent. He was also the youngest known Bishop of London – his five youngest children were born in Fulham Palace – and his energy and zeal did much to extend the influence of the church.

Blomfield worked with social reformer Lord Shaftesbury to secure more, and better quality housing for the poor. This included the introduction of laws to secure the building of new lodging houses, with regular inspections and measure to include better maintenance of other rented property. He also campaigned against the forced eviction of tens of thousand of working-class people, moved out of their slum homes without compensation to make way for new railway lines, and in particular their termininus stations.

Later life

In 1856 he was permitted to resign his bishopric due to ill health, retaining Fulham Palace as his residence, with a pension of £6,000 per annum.

Blomfield is buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church, Fulham, London and a memorial to him, by George Richmond, can be seen at Saint Paul's Cathedral along the south wall of the ambulatory. His grave has long-since had the surrounding railings removed. Blomfield Road in Maida Vale is named after him.

Published works

His published works, beside those above mentioned, consist of charges, sermons, lectures and pamphlets, and a Manual of Private and Family Prayers. He was a frequent contributor to the quarterly reviews, chiefly on classical subjects.

Personal life

Blomfield married Anna Maria Heath on 6 November 1810 at Hemblington, Norfolk and they had six children:

Anna Maria Blomfield (1811–1812)

Charles James Blomfield (1813–1813)

Maria Blomfield (1814–1884)

Charles William Blomfield (1815–1815)

Edward Thomas Blomfield (1816–1822)

Charles James Blomfield (1818–1818)

Anna Maria died on 16 February 1818 aged 33 at Hildersham, Cambridgeshire.

Blomfield then married Dorothy (née Cox, widow of Thomas Kent of Hildersham, Cambridgeshire) on 17 December 1819 at St George, Hanover Square, London, and they had eleven children:

Charles James Blomfield (1820–1822)

Mary Frances Blomfield (1821–1869), whose younger daughter Katharine Frances Dalton married George Edward Jelf

Frederick George "Fred" Blomfield (1823–1879), rector

Isabella "Isy" Blomfield (1824–1879), who married her cousin George John Blomfield, vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Dartford, and rector of Aldington, Kent

Henry John Blomfield (1825–1900), Royal Navy

Francis "Frank" Blomfield (1827–1860), drowned in the SS Northerner steamer disaster off the California coast

Commemoration

Blomfield Street, near Liverpool Street railway station on the eastern edge of the City of London, is named after Charles Blomfield. It was renamed from Broker Row in 1860.