Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Conybeare, William John

by no contributor recorded

CONYBEARE, WILLIAM JOHN (1815–1857), divine and author, eldest son of the Rev. William Daniel Conybeare [q. v.], afterwards dean of Llandaff, and well known as one of the earliest pioneers of geology in England, was born on 1 Aug. 1815. He was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. He took his degree in 1837, being fifteenth wrangler and third classic. In 1841 he took orders, and was appointed Whitehall preacher. In 1842 he was appointed first principal of the newly founded Liverpool Collegiate Institution, and married the same year Miss Eliza Rose, daughter of the late vicar of Rothley, Leicestershire. Failure of health obliged him in 1848 to resign his post at Liverpool, and he succeeded his father as vicar of Axminster, Devonshire, being followed as principal of the college by his friend and fellow-worker, the Rev. J. S. Howson (afterwards dean of Chester), in conjunction with whom he brought out the ‘Life and Epistles of S. Paul’ in 1851. His other works are: ‘Essays Ecclesiastical and Social,’ published in 1856, consisting of articles contributed to the ‘Edinburgh Review’ (one of which, ‘Church Parties,’ passed through many editions), and ‘Perversion,’ a novel, published in 1856. Illness obliged him to resign his benefice in 1854; he died at Weybridge in 1857. He left two children: Edward, born 1843, vicar of Barrington, Cambridgeshire, and Grace, born 1855, married 1878 to G. C. Macaulay, assistant-master at Rugby.

[Information from his son, the Rev. E. Conybeare.]