Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Coxe, Richard Charles

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COXE, RICHARD CHARLES (1800–1865), archdeacon of Lindisfarne, was born in 1800, and educated at Norwich grammar school. He was elected scholar of Worcester College, Oxford, in 1818, and graduated B.A. in 1821 and M.A. in 1824. He was ordained deacon in 1823, and priest in the following year. After for some time acting as chaplain of Archbishop Tenison's chapel, Regent Street, London, he obtained in 1841 the vicarage of Newcastle-on-Tyne. In 1843 he was appointed honorary canon of Durham. From 1845 till he left Newcastle he received an annual supplement of five hundred guineas to his income, subscribed by his parishioners. In 1853 he obtained the archdeaconry of Lindisfarne with the vicarage of Eglingham annexed, and in 1857 he was appointed canon of Durham. He died at Eglingham vicarage, Northumberland, 25 Aug. 1865. Coxe enjoyed a high reputation as an eloquent preacher, and was a strenuous opponent of latitudinarianism in doctrine and practice, as well as a strong upholder of the rights and privileges of the clergy. His untiring energy is evidenced in his voluminous publications, the quantity of which has probably to some extent aided to modify their quality. Besides numerous single sermons and addresses he was the author of the following theological works: ‘Lectures on the Evidences from Miracles,’ 1832; ‘Practical Sermons,’ 1836; ‘Death disarmed of its Sting,’ 1836; ‘The Symmetry of Divine Revelation a Witness to the Divinity of Christ,’ 1845; and ‘Remorse: Remorse for Intellectual and Literary Offences: Retribution,’ 1864. He also published ‘Six Ballads,’ 1842; ‘The Mercy at Marsdon Rocks,’ 1844; ‘Poems, Scriptural, Classical, Miscellaneous,’ 1845; ‘The Snow Shroud, or the Lost Bairn o' Biddlestone Edge,’ 1845; ‘Leda Tanah, the Martyr's Child; Derwent Bank,’ 1851; ‘Woodnotes: the Silvitudia of M. Casimir Surbievius, with a translation in English verse; Musings at Tynemouth, ten sonnets; North and South, ten sonnets,’ 1848; and ‘Ballads from the Portuguese’ in the second part of Adamson's ‘Lusitania Illustrata.’ He married Louisa, daughter of Rev. J. Maule of Dover, and left a daughter and two sons.

Gent. Mag. xiv. new ser. (1865), pp. 513–14; Men of the Time, 6th ed.; Latimer's Local Records of Northumberland and Durham; Brit. Mus. Cat.]