Life

The second son of Samuel Rainbow Girdlestone, a chancery barrister, was born in London in March 1797; Edward Girdlestone, canon of Bristol, was his younger brother. He was educated at Tunbridge School, under Vicesimus Knox

Vicesimus Knox

Vicesimus Knox was an English essayist and minister. He was born December 8, 1752, at Newington Green, Middlesex. Knox was educated at St John's College, Oxford, took orders, and became Head Master of Tonbridge School. He published Essays Moral and Literary , and compiled the formerly well-known...

, and in 1815 entered Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College, Oxford

Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I...

, where he held two exhibitions

Exhibition (scholarship)

-United Kingdom and Ireland:At the universities of Dublin, Oxford and Cambridge, and at Westminster School, Eton College and Winchester College, and various other UK educational establishments, an exhibition is a financial award or grant to an individual student, normally on grounds of merit. The...

, one for Hebrew, the other for botany. In 1818 he graduated B.A., with a first class in classics and a second in mathematics, at the same time as Edward Greswell

Edward Greswell

-Life:The son of the Rev. William Parr Greswell, he was born at Denton near Manchester, on 3 August 1797. He was educated by his father and at Manchester Grammar School. He matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford, on 5 April 1815, and was elected scholar in the same year. Early in 1816 he...

, Josiah Forshall

Josiah Forshall

Josiah Forshall , was an English librarian.Forshall was born at Witney in Oxfordshire on 29 March 1795, was the eldest son of Samuel Forshall. He received some of his education at the grammar schools of Exeter and Chester, and in 1814 entered Exeter College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1818,...

, and Richard Bethell

Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury

Richard Bethell, 1st Baron Westbury PC, QC , was a British lawyer, judge and Liberal politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain between 1861 and 1865.-Background and education:...

, also of Wadham. He was elected to an open fellowship at Balliol College, and was appointed catechetical, logical, and mathematical lecturer in the college.

He was ordained deacon in 1820 and priest in 1821, taking his M.A. degree in the same year. About this time he became tutor to the twin sons of Sir John Stanley

John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley

John Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley , known as Sir John Stanley, 7th Baronet, from 1807 to 1839, was a British peer and politician....

 of Alderley Park; it was this connection which led to his being appointed rector of Alderley

Alderley

Alderley could beUnited Kingdom*Alderley, Cheshire, England*Alderley, Gloucestershire, EnglandAustralia*Alderley, Queensland, AustraliaUnited States*Alderley, Wisconsin-See also:United Kingdom*Alderley Edge, Cheshire, England...

 some years later. In 1822 he was curate at Hastings

Hastings

Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....

, and in 1824 at Ferry Hincksey, near Oxford. He was classical examiner for degrees at Oxford in 1825–6, and select preacher to the university in 1825 and 1830.

Shortly after his marriage (1826) he was presented by John William Ward, 4th Viscount Dudley and Ward, on the recommendation of Edward Copleston

Edward Copleston

Edward Copleston was an English churchman and academic, Provost of Oriel College, Oxford from 1814 and bishop of Llandaff from 1827.-Life:He was born at Offwell in Devon, and educated at Oxford University....

, to the vicarage of Sedgley

Sedgley

Sedgley is an urban village within the West Midlands county of England. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Sedgley was formerly an ancient manor composed of several smaller villages, including Gornal, Gospel End, Woodsetton, Ettingshall, Coseley and Brierley...

, a parish of about 20,000 inhabitants in the south of the Stafford

Stafford

Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...

 mining district. Here, with the assistance of his patron, he built churches, schools, and parsonages. The place suffered severely from the second cholera pandemic

Second cholera pandemic

The second cholera pandemic also known as the Asiatic Cholera Pandemic was a Cholera pandemic from 1829-1849.-History:This pandemic began, like the first, with outbreaks along the Ganges River delta. From there the disease spread along trade routes to cover most of India. By 1828 the disease had...

. There were 1,350 cases of cholera and 290 deaths in six weeks in August and September 1832.

In 1837, when Edward Stanley

Edward Stanley

Edward Stanley may refer to:*Edward Stanley, 1st Baron Monteagle , English soldier and peer*Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby , English nobleman*Edward Stanley, 11th Earl of Derby , British peer and politician...

 was appointed bishop of Norwich, Girdlestone accepted the living of Alderley, Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, which the bishop vacated. The offer was made to him through the influence of his former pupil, Edward John Stanley, then under-secretary for foreign affairs. But Girdlestone became involved protracted litigation with the first Lord Stanley (patron of the living) and other landowners of the parish, caused by the Tithes Commutation Act of 1836.

He passed part of 1845 and 1846 in Italy and elsewhere for his health. On his return to England he accepted the rectory of Kingswinford

Kingswinford

Kingswinford is a suburban area in the West Midlands.Historically within Staffordshire, the area is mentioned in the Domesday Book its name relates to a ford for the King's swine - Latin Swinford Regis. The current significance is probably in tourism, education and housing...

 in the Staffordshire mining district, offered him by Lord Ward, afterwards Earl of Dudley, cousin of his former patron. Here Girdlestone had to face the second great cholera epidemic of 1849, when Kingswinford suffered severely. He resigned in 1877; at the time one of his sons was his locum tenens. He had for many years resided at Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...

 in Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

 on account of his health, where he died in April 1881, at the age of eighty-four.

Works

At Oxford, as select preacher, he advocated in a sermon, afterwards published, ‘Affection between Churchmen and Dissenters,’ and in later life he spoke of ‘those noxious errors, Tractarian and Neological.’ Immediately after the epidemic of 1832 was over, Girdlestone published ‘Seven Sermons preached during the prevalence of Cholera,’ with a map of the district, and a preface giving an account of the visitation and of the religious impressions produced by it at the time upon the people. In 1843–4 he was one of the earliest supporters of the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrial Classes, and in 1845 he published twelve ‘Letters on the Unhealthy Condition of the Lower Class of Dwellings,’ founded on the official reports recently issued by the poor law commissioners and the health of towns commission.

His major work was his commentary on the Bible, which occupied him for several years. The New Testament was first published in 2 vols., 1832–5, the Old Testament in 4 vols., 1842. A new edition, in 6 vols., was published in 1873. He published also eleven small volumes of sermons and several single ones. On one occasion Girdlestone heard one of them read from the pulpit by a preacher who was quite unconscious of the author's presence.

Later in life he sided with the evangelicals and conservatives, though as advocate of church reform and reform of convocation, of revision of the prayer-book and also of the authorised version of the Bible. Other works were:

• Two volumes of ‘Devotions for Family Use and for Private Use,’ 1835.
• Two volumes of ‘Select Hymns for Public Use and for Private Use,’ 1835.
• Twenty-eight numbers of ‘Sedgley Church Tracts,’ 1831–6.
• ‘Concordance to the Prayer Book Version of the Psalms,’ 1834.
• The Bible version and the prayer-book version of the Psalms, in parallel columns, 1836.
• ‘Questions of the Day, by the Creature of an Hour,’ 1857 (anonymous).
• ‘Christendom, sketched from History in the Light of Holy Scripture,’ 1870.
• ‘Number, a Link between Divine Intelligence and Human,’ 1875.
• ‘Thoughts on Dying Daily,’ 1878.
• An expurgated edition of ‘Horace with English notes of a Christian tendency, for the Use of Schools,’ in conjunction with the Rev. W. A. Osborne, 1848.

Family

In 1826 he married Anne Elizabeth, only daughter of Baker Morrell, esq., solicitor to the university of Oxford, who survived him about a year. By her he had one daughter, who died in infancy, and eight sons, of whom seven survived him, the sixth, Robert Baker Girdlestone

Robert Baker Girdlestone

Canon Robert Baker Girdlestone was an Anglican priest, first principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and Hebrew scholar, best known for his reference work Synonyms of the Old Testament.-Life:...

, being principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford

Wycliffe Hall, Oxford

Wycliffe Hall is a Church of England theological college and a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located on the Banbury Road in central North Oxford, between Norham Gardens and Norham Road.-Overview:...

, from 1877 to 1889.