Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lloyd, Charles (1784-1829)
LLOYD, CHARLES (1784–1829), bishop of Oxford, was the eldest surviving son of the Rev. Thomas Lloyd, rector of Aston-sub-Edge, Gloucestershire, 1782–1815, who dwelt at Downley in West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, but afterwards removed to Bradenham and to Peterley House, Great Missenden, where he became famous as a schoolmaster. He died at Missenden 4 Sept. 1815, aged 70, and his wife Elizabeth died 26 May 1814, aged 54; both were buried at Missenden. Their son Charles was born at Downley 26 Sept. 1784, and educated for some time by his father. In the Eton School list he is entered, sub 1802, as a colleger and in the fifth form, upper division, and he remained at Eton until he was superannuated. On 4 Feb. 1803 he matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, and from December 1804 until 1822 he was dean's student, on the nomination of Cyril Jackson [q. v.] He graduated B.A. in 1806 (after having in an examination of three days gained the first place in the honours list), M.A. 1809, B.D. 1818, and D.D. 1821. Sir Robert Peel became his pupil while he was still an undergraduate, and found in him throughout his life ‘a friend and counsellor.’ On taking his degree Lloyd went to Scotland as tutor in Lord Elgin's family, but soon returned to Christ Church, where he was made in turn mathematical lecturer, tutor, and censor. The skill in teaching which he derived from his father gave him great influence at Oxford. When Abbot vacated in 1817 his seat for the university, Lloyd was despatched to London with the invitation to Peel to fill the vacancy, and through Peel's influence his rise in the church was rapid. From 21 June 1819 to 12 Feb. 1822 he held the preachership at Lincoln's Inn, he was chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury about 1820, and on 5 Feb. 1822 he was instituted to the vicarage of South Bersted in Sussex. In the latter year he was called back to Oxford as regius professor of divinity, with the rectory of Ewelme and a canonry at Christ Church. These preferments he retained until his death. On 4 March 1827 he was consecrated as bishop of Oxford at Lambeth. Like Peel he altered his views on the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, in favour of which he delivered an impressive speech in the House of Lords on 2 April 1829 (Hansard, xxi. 75–91). For some time Lloyd had taken insufficient exercise, and his health was further weakened by the censure of the newspapers and the cold treatment of his friends at his change in politics. A chill which he caught at the Royal Academy dinner at Somerset House on 2 May 1829 hastened his end. He died at Whitehall Place, London, 31 May 1829, and on 6 June was buried in the cloister under the chapel of Lincoln's Inn. He married at Thorpe, Surrey, on 15 Aug. 1822, Mary Harriett, daughter of Colonel John Stapleton of Thorpe Lee. She survived him, with one son and four daughters. Lloyd's ambition was to make himself a great divine, presiding over a school of theology at Oxford, and to secure this result he supplemented his formal discourses by private lectures, which were attended by such graduates as R. H. Froude, Newman, Pusey, and Frederick Oakeley. He taught, to the surprise of many of his hearers, that the prayer-book was but the reflexion of mediæval and primitive devotion, still embodied in its Latin form in the Roman service books. His pupils were grateful for his instruction, though it was accompanied by much ‘chaff at their expense.' Many of them, partly through his help, rose to eminence, and Newman claimed to have repeated in 'Tract XC.' his views on the 'distinction between the decrees of Trent and the practical Roman system.' A brief abstract of his lectures is given in the 'History of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford,' by its vicar, the Rev. E. S. Ffoulkes, pp. 400–4. His publications were few in number, and consisted of: 1. 'Formularies of Faith put forth by authority during the reign of Henry VIII,' 1825 and 1856. 2. 'Novum Testamentum [in Greek]. Accedunt Parallela Scripturæ loca necnon vetus capitulorum notatio et Canones Eusebii,' 1828, 1830, and 1863. He contributed to the 'British Critic,' October 1825, pp. 94–149, a 'View of the Roman Catholic Doctrines,' and he was the first to publish the 'Book of Common Prayer' with red-lettered rubrics (1829). Many of his liturgical notes were used by William Palmer in his 'Origines Liturgicæ,' and an interleaved copy of Gaisford's edition of the 'Enchiridion of Hephæstion' which is in the British Museum has some manuscript notes by him. Mr. Gladstone characterises Lloyd as 'a man of powerful talents, and of character both winning and decided,' and Dean Church remarks that had he lived he would have played a considerable part in the Oxford movement.
[Gent. Mag. 1815 pt. ii. p. 285, 1822 pt. ii. p. 273, 1829 pt. i. pp. 560–3; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. xi. 106, 155, 215 (1855); Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Le Neve's Fasti, ii. 509–10, 526, iii. 511; Lipscomb's Buckinghamshire, ii. 385; J. H. Newman's Letters, 1891, i. 82, 84, 109–13, 208–9; Newman's Tract XC., ed. 1865, pp. xxii–v; Gladstone's Chapter of Autobiog. pp. 52–3; Froude's Remains, i. 30–48, 221; Dean Church's Oxford Movement, pp. 10, 41; Parker's Sir R. Peel, 1788–1827, pp. 17–18, 250–5, 288–95, 322–325, 384–6, 438–47, 477–81.]