Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cassan, Stephen Hyde
CASSAN, STEPHEN HYDE (1789–1841), ecclesiastical biographer, son of Stephen Cassan, barrister, by his wife Sarah, daughter of Charles Mears, was born in 1789 at Calcutta, where his father was sheriff. He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and took his B.A. degree on 14 Jan. 1815. He received deacon's orders on 26 March following, and was ordained priest the next year. While curate of Frome, Somerset, in 1820, he made a runaway match with Fanny, daughter of Rev. William Ireland, then dead, formerly vicar of that parish. This marriage occasioned considerable scandal, and led to legal proceedings, of which an account is given in two pamphlets published at Bath in 1821—one, ‘A Report of the Trial, Cassan v. Ireland, for Defamation;’ and the other by Cassan, entitled ‘Who wrote the Letters, or a Statement of Facts.’ Removing from Frome, he held the curacy of Mere, Wiltshire, until 1831, when he was presented by Sir Richard C. Hoare to the living of Bruton with Wyke Champflower. He was also chaplain to the Earl of Caledon and to the Duke of Cambridge. His family was large, and he was constantly involved in pecuniary difficulties. From these he sought to free himself by publishing books by subscription, and by seeking for promotion. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1829. After suffering from insanity for two years, he died on 19 July 1841. Besides pamphlets—one of them mentioned above—he published: 1. ‘The Sin of Schism, and the Protestant Episcopal Church proved to be the only safe means of Salvation, a Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Frome,’ 1819; 2nd ed., with appendix, 1820. This was answered by ‘A Word of Advice to the Curate of Frome,’ 1820. 2. ‘Lives and Memoirs of the Bishops of Sherborne and Salisbury,’ 1824. 3. A volume of sermons, 1827. 4. ‘Lives of the Bishops of Winchester,’ 1827, 2 vols. 5. ‘Lives of the Bishops of Bath and Wells,’ 1830. No set of his lives of the bishops is of any real value, the memoirs being almost wholly composed of extracts from well-known printed books. Such original remarks as they contain are extraordinarily childish and whimsical, and in many cases exhibit a degree of intolerance which was probably caused by the latent presence of mental disorder. Besides these works, Cassan compiled genealogies of himself and of other members of his family, which he circulated widely for the purpose of proving that his descent was noble, and that he therefore had a strong claim to preferment. He contributed various genealogical notices to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’
[Gent. Mag. 1841, pt. ii. 550; information from E. Green, esq., hon. secretary of the Somerset Archæological Society.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.57
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 268 | ii | 15 | Cassan, Stephen H.: after 1827 insert in the list of works 'Lives of the Bishops of Winchester,' London, 1827, 2 vols. |