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Author: Hinds, Samuel

Biography:

HINDS, Samuel (1793-1872: ODNB)

He was born in St. Thomas, Barbados, on 23 Dec. 1793, the son of Abel Hinds and Elizabeth Thornhill (Rock) Hinds. He was descended from early settlers and plantation owners and while he lived in Barbados owned at various times between one and six slaves; when he left the island his remaining slaves were freed. After attending a boarding school near Bristol, he went up to Oxford (matric. Balliol 1811; BA Queen’s 1815, MA 1818, BD and DD 1831). In 1821 he married Eleanor Ann Clinckett (1800-34) in Barbados: her father Abel Clinckett ran the Barbadian newspaper and in 1836 would be awarded compensation for 31 slaves. The couple appear to have been childless. In Barbados Hinds, ordained in 1822, acted as a missionary to the black population and later served as Principal of Codrington College, but he returned to England in 1827 as Vice-principal of St. Alban Hall, Oxford, when his former tutor Richard Whately (1787-1863) was appointed Principal. He followed Whately to Dublin in 1831 as a chaplain when Whately became the Archbishop there, but had to resign on account of ill health. His wife died in 1834. Hinds’s rise through the ranks of the Church began with modest livings in Hertfordshire 1834-43 followed by more lucrative appointments in Ireland 1843-8, then the deanery of Carlisle in 1848 and the bishopric of Norwich in 1849. He appears to have been a learned and kindly man of progressive views who pursued a variety of causes and was sometimes involved in controversy. He contributed articles on church history to the Encyclopedia Metropolitana; promoted missionary societies; and advocated for the colonisation of New Zealand (a river and a town on the South Island are named after him). On 7 Sept. 1854 he married a milliner, Sarah (or Emily) Shirley (1831-1901) in Margate, Kent; there is no record of children. He resigned his bishopric in 1857 on the grounds of ill health and was reported to have been a “confirmed invalid” for the rest of his life. He died at his home at 40 Clarendon Rd., Notting Hill, London, on 7 Feb 1872 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, leaving an estate of under £60,000 to his wife as sole executrix. (ODNB 11 Jul. 2022; ancestry.com 11 Jul. 2022; findmypast.com 11 Jul. 2022; Leeds Mercury 30 Mar. 1872; Alumni Oxonienses; LBS 11 Jul. 2022)  

 

Books written (2):