Author: Biddulph, Thomas T.
Biography:
BIDDULPH, Thomas Tregenna (1763-1838: ODNB)
An evangelical writer who published just one book of verse, he was the only son of the Rev. Thomas Biddulph (1734-90) and his first wife Martha Tregenna (1730-83), daughter of the Rev. John Tregenna of Cornwall. He was born at Claines, Worcestershire, on 5 July 1763. When the family moved to Padstow, Cornwall, where his father was vicar, he was educated at the grammar school in Truro. He matriculated at Queen’s College, Oxford, on 23 Nov. 1780 (BA 1784, MA 1787). He was ordained deacon in 1785 and priest in 1788 and became a curate at Padstow to assist his father. He was made the incumbent at Bengeworth, Worcestershire, in 1793; a lecturer at St. Stephen’s, Bristol, in 1795; vicar of Congresbury in 1798; and perpetual curate of St. James’s, Bristol, in 1799. He served at St. James’s until his death. On 19 Feb. 1789 in Bradford upon Avon he married Rachel Shrapnel (1762-1842), the daughter of Zachariah Shrapnel, a prosperous manufacturer, and sister of Henry Shrapnel, inventor of shrapnel shells. They had fourteen children but just three survived their father. Biddulph developed a reputation as a preacher and he held strongly to Calvinist doctrines. He was considered the leader of the evangelical movement in Bristol and the west country; it was on his initiative that the evangelical magazine The Christian Guardian (formerly Zion’s Trumpet) was founded in 1798 (not 1789 as in the ODNB). He also caused a church, St. Matthew’s, Kingsdown, Bristol, to be built; it was consecrated on 23 Apr. 1835 and his son, Theophilius, served as the first vicar before his death in 1837. Thomas Biddulph died at home in St. James’s Square, Bristol, on 19 May 1838 and was buried at his church. The Preface to his book of verse states that some of the poems were previously published in a magazine. His many other publications were sermons, letters, and essays; they are listed in Bibliotheca Cornubiensis. (ODNB 25 May 2023; ancestry.co.uk 25 May 2023; Alumni Oxonienses; CCEd 25 May 2023; Bibliotheca Cornubiensis)