Bishop William Nicolson of Carlisle and his Dean, Francis Atterbury: A Case Study of Local Ecclesiastical Politics, 1705 to 1708

Abstract

The beginning of Queen Anne’s reign saw an intense struggle between High Church Tories and the Whiggish Williamite bishops over issues involving the power of Convocation and the practice of occasional conformity. The battles raged in both Convocation and Parliament. While the mêlée took place primarily on the national level, skirmishes broke out locally as well. This article focuses on one such series of events in the diocese of Carlisle, involving its bishop, William Nicolson, and his obstreperous dean, Francis Atterbury. The controversies included the legitimacy of Atterbury’s appointment as dean, the bishop’s demand that Atterbury abjure certain assertions in his writings, the power of the dean to conduct business of the chapter without the bishop’s consent, even who had the power to appoint the chapter cook. Atterbury and Nicolson became entangled as well in an obscure dispute between a vicar and his curate. Throughout, the metropolitan, John Sharp of York, attempted to mediate these clashes but with little success. Thus these local controversies mirrored the intransigence of the parties on the national scene, denying Anne’s efforts to provide the Church of England with a period of tranquility after the disruptions of her predecessor’s reign. This present study seeks to rectify the failure of previous accounts to demonstrate the reciprocal correlation between these local events and their national implications.