Renn Dickson Hampden

Renn Dickson Hampden, Anglican clergyman, awarded the compensation for one enslaved person in Barbados.

1. Hampden born in Barbados, the son of a colonel of militia. Theologian who was engaged in Anglican controversies (against the Tractarians in the 1830s) and in defence of Anglican orthodoxies against the 'broad church' advocates of the 1850s and 1860s.

2. Renn Dickson Hampden, late King William's Reader of Theology, was put forward in 1847 as the new Bishop of Hereford [Herefordshire], but the Dean of Hereford demurred, because Hampden had been censured at Oxford in 1830s. Hampden was confirmed in any case.

3. Renn Dickson Hampden is in the ODNB as 'bishop of Hereford and theologian.' The entry describes him as the son of Renn Hampden, colonel of militia in Barbados, and Frances Raven, and mentions his stint (1825–6) as editor of the Christian Remembrancer, 'a high-church journal with strong financial links to the West Indian merchants.'

4. Living in Christchurch college, Oxford, in the census of 1841, age 45 with his wife Mary age 40, Laura and Henrietta (both 15), Charles John and Grenville (both 5). Living at the Bishop's Palace, Hereford, in the census of 1861, age 63, born Barbados, with his wife Mary age 57 and daughter Henrietta age 35.

T71/897 Barbados claim no. 2521.

T71/1611 letter from Thos Moody of Waltham Abbey: 'I have had a request from the Rev Dr Hampden of St Mary Hall Oxford to enquire after some domestics left to him in Barbadose [sic], who were slaves.'

1. Richard Brent, ‘Hampden, Renn Dickson (1793–1868)’, ODNB online edn.

2. Times 20/12/1847 p. 5, 'The Hampden controversy'; Times 23/03/1848 p. 3.

3. ODNB online Richard Brent, 'Hampden, Renn Dickson (1793-1868), bishop of Hereford and theologian.'

4. 1861 census online.