Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Denison, George Anthony
DENISON, GEORGE ANTHONY (1805–1896), archdeacon of Taunton, born at Ossington, Nottinghamshire, on 11 Dec. 1805, was fourth son of John Denison, merchant, of Leeds, M.P. for Colchester, 1802–6, and for Minehead, 1807–12, by his second wife, Charlotte Estwicke [cf. Denison, Edward, the elder, 1801–1854; Denison, John Evelyn, Viscount Ossington, 1800–1873; and Denison, Sir William Thomas, 1804–1871].
He was educated at private schools, at Eton, and at Oxford, for which he was prepared by a private tutor, Charles Drury, whose severe discipline he was accustomed to describe as the most salutary experience of his life. He matriculated from Christ Church on 14 Nov. 1823, graduated B. A. (first class in literæ humaniores) in 1827, and proceeded M.A. in 1830. He twice gained the chancellor's prize by his Latin essay in 1828, in which year he was elected fellow of Oriel College, and by his English essay in 1829. In 1832 he took holy orders and the Cuddesdon cure of souls. A college tutorship, to which he was elected in 1830, he retained until 1836, when he exchanged it for the office of treasurer. Oriel society he found extremely uncongenial, and in 1838 accepted from his brother the vicarage of Broadwinsor, Dorset. He was collated on 10 Aug. 1841 to the ninth prebend of Wilsford and Woodford in the church of Sarum, and on 28 April 1849 to the ninth prebend of Combe in the church of Wells, which he exchanged for the two prebends of Milverton in the same church, on his appointment, 30 Sept. 1851, to the archdeaconry of Taunton. At the same time he exchanged the vicarage of Broadwinsor for that of East Brent, Somerset.
From the first a strong high churchman, Denison united with Manning in organising resistance to the regulation of parochial schools by the state [see Manning, Henry Edward]. He also joined in the protests against Hampden's preferment to the see of Hereford, and the final judgment in the Gorham case [see Hampden, Renn Dickson, and Gorham, George Cornelius], and was himself defendant in another ecclesiastical cause célebre. The high standard of eucharistic doctrine which, as examining chaplain to the bishop of Bath and Wells he set before the candidates for ordination led to a difference with the bishop's commissary, in which Denison was so ill supported by the bishop that he resigned (June 1853) [see Bagot, Richard, D.D.] He then defined his doctrinal position with exactitude in three sermons preached in Wells Cathedral (7 Aug., 6 Nov. 1853, 14 May 1854), which by their explicit affirmation of the objective real presence in the elements, and the consequent adorability of the sacrament, though not of the sensible species, furnished the Evangelical Alliance with matter for proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts. The prosecution, initiated ostensibly by the Rev. Joseph Ditcher, vicar of South Brent, was maintained with the utmost vigour, and met with an equally stout resistance. The result, as in the Gorham case, served only to illustrate the uncertainty of the law. Denison's views were declared contrary to the 28th and 29th of the Articles of Religion by Archbishop Sumner, sitting with assessors at Bath on 12 Aug. 1856, and as Denison declined to recant, he was sentenced to deprivation (22 Oct.) The execution of the sentence was, however, deferred pending an appeal to the court of arches, which resulted in its reversal on a technical point {23 April 1857), and an appeal from this decision was dismissed by the judicial committee of the privy council (6 Feb. 1858), without any determination of the substantive question.
Denison was editor of the 'Church and State Review' from its commencement in 1862 to its cessation in 1865. For many years he was a potent force in the convocation of Canterbury, which he succeeded in committing in 1863 to a censure (20 May) of Colenso's 'Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua critically examined,' and in the following year to a more formal condemnation (24 June) of 'Essays and Reviews.' He also led the illiberal opposition to the endowment of the regius chair of Greek at Oxford, for no other reason than that it was held by Benjamin Jowett [q. v. Suppl.], and entered his protest against Dr. Temple's consecration to the see of Exeter (December 1869). On the question of national education he continued to the end irreconcilable, and viewed the compromise effected in 1870 with unmitigated disgust. His attempt to foreclose the discussion on the Athanasian Creed, in the course of Dean Stanley's speech in the lower house of the convocation of Canterbury, on 24 April 1872, caused a dramatic scene which terminated in his temporary secession from the assembly. Essentially a high churchman of the old school, Denison never became a thorough-going ritualist, though in 1877 he joined the Society of the Holy Cross. Of the higher criticism he remained entirely unreceptive, and his disapprobation of 'Lux Mundi' caused his secession in 1892 from the English Church Union, of which he had been one of the founders. His later life was embittered by the recognition that the cause for which he had so sturdily contended was at least temporarily lost. His closing years were spent in comparative seclusion at East Brent, where, on 21 March 1896, he died. His remains were interred in East Brent churchyard on 26 March.
Denison was as genial in society as he was unsparing in controversy. He reserved his odium theologicum exclusively for public use; nor did antipodal divergence of view in the least degree impair the harmony of his private relations with Dean Stanley. To Gladstone's political action he was in his later years resolutely opposed, and his vehement denunciations in print of Gladstone's character and opinions attracted much public notice. As a parish priest he was an interesting example of a type now almost extinct dignified, kindly and paternally despotic, with a keen eye to the temporal as well as the spiritual needs of his flock. With him originated the now popular festival of 'harvest home,' and East Brent owes him a permanent debt of gratitude for the improvement at his own expense of its water supply. He married, on 4 Sept. 1838, Georgiana, eldest daughter of Joseph Warner Henley.
Besides his archidiaconal charges, the sermons on the Holy Eucharist already referred to, with others of his sermons, and some letters and other fugitive pieces, Denison published in 1855 'Saravia on the Holy Eucharist. The original Latin from the MS. in the British Museum, now printed for the first time,' edited with a translation (London, 3vo): a valuable contribution to the history of Anglo-catholic sacramental doctrine. Fie was also author of:
- 'Notes of my Life,' London, 1878, 8vo; 3rd edit. 1879.
- 'Mr. Gladstone,' London, 1885: a violent political diatribe which reached a fourth edition in 1886.
- 'Supplement to "Notes of my Life," 1879, and "Mr. Gladstone," 1886, Oxford and London, 1893, 8vo.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. and Index Ecclesiasticus; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl.; Proceedings against the Archdeacon of Taunton. … Reprinted from the official documents and other authentic sources, Bath, 1857; Moore's Privy Council Cases, xi. 324; Phillimore's Ecclesiastical Law, i. 532; Chronicles of Convocation, 1858-93; Notes of my Life and Supplement thereto above cited; J. B. Mozley's Letters; Overton and Wordsworth's Life of Christopher Wordsworth, bishop of Lincoln; Purcell's Life of Manning; Benson's Life of Archbishop Benson; Selborne's Memorials, Family and Personal; Liddon's Life of Pusey; Davidson and Benham's Life of Archbishop Tait; Macdonell's Life of Archbishop Magee; Prothero's Life of Dean Stanley; Dean Burgon's Lives of Twelve Good Men; Goulburn's Life of Dean Burgon; Life of Dean Butler; Gent. Mag. 1838, ii. 543; Men and Women of the Time, 1895; Times, 23 March 1896; Ann. Reg. 1896, ii. 142; Guardian, 25 March, 1 April 1896; Westminster Gazette, 23 March 1896.]