Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Perowne, John James Stewart
PEROWNE, JOHN JAMES STEWART (1823–1904), bishop of Worcester, born at Burdwan, Bengal, on 13 March 1823, was eldest of three sons of the Rev. John Perowne, a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, by his wife, Eliza Scott of Heacham, Norfolk. His brothers were Edward Henry Perowne [q.v. Suppl. II] and Thomas Thomason Perowne, archdeacon of Norwich from 1898 to 1910. The family is of Huguenot origin. From Norwich grammar school Perowne won a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He was Bell University scholar in 1842; members' prizeman in 1844, 1846, and 1847; Crosse scholar in 1845; Tyrwhitt scholar in 1848. He graduated B.A. in 1845, proceeding M.A. in 1848, B.D. in 1856, and D.D. in 1873. In 1845 be became assistant master at Cheam school; was ordained deacon in 1847 and priest in 1848; and served the curacy of Tunstead, Norfolk, 1847–9. In 1849 he became a master at King Edward's school, Birmingham; but in 1851 was elected to a fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. For a time he served his college as assistant tutor, whilst also lecturing at King's College, London, and acting as assistant preacher at Lincoln's Inn. He examined for the classical tripos in 1851 and 1852, and was select preacher in 1853, an office he also filled in 1861, 1873, 1876, 1879, 1882, and 1897.
From 1862 till 1872 Perowne worked in Wales. He was vice-principal of St. David's College, Lampeter (1862–72); cursal prebendary of St. David's (1867–72); canon of Llandaff (1869–1878); and rector of Llandisilio, Montgomeryshire (1870–71). Meanwhile his commentary on the Psalms (1864) made his name as an Old Testament scholar, and in 1870 he was chosen one of the Old Testament revision company. In 1868 he had become Hulsean lecturer, and in 1872 he returned to Cambridge. From 1873 to 1875 he held a fellowship at Trinity; he was Lady Margaret preacher in 1874, and Whitehall preacher from 1874 to 1876; in 1875 he succeeded Joseph Barber Lightfoot [q. v.] as Hulsean professor, and held office until 1878. For the same period (1875-1878) he was one of the honorary chaplains to Queen Victoria.
In 1878 Perowne was appointed dean of Peterborough. He developed the cathedral services, carried on the restoration of the fabric, and cultivated friendly relations with nonconformists. In 1881 he was appointed to the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission, and was one of seven commissioners who signed a protest against the exercise by the bishop of an absolute veto on proceedings. In 1889 he aided in founding a body known as 'Churchmen in Council,' which aimed at uniting 'moderate' churchmen in a policy regarding ritual; he explained the aim of the society by issuing in the same year a proposal for authorising both the maximum and the minimum interpretation of the Ornaments Rubric, which was widely discussed but led to no results.
Perowne was consecrated bishop of Worcester in Westminster Abbey on 2 Feb. 1891. He obtained the appointment of a suffragan bishop, created a new archdeaconry, and summoned a diocesan conference. In 1892 he presided at some sessions of an informal conference on reunion of all English protestants held at Grindelwald, and at an English church service there administered the Holy Communion to nonconformists, an act which provoked much criticism. The church congress, hitherto excluded from the diocese, met at Birmingham in 1893, when the bishop announced his assent to the division of his diocese, and his willingness to contribute to the stipend of the new see 500l. a year from the income of Worcester. This was afterwards made contingent on his being allowed to give up Hartlebury Castle, to which the ecclesiastical commissioners refused consent. Attacked in the Birmingham press for his action in the matter in 1896, Perowne was presented with an address of approval by 60 beneficed clergy of three rural deaneries. He resigned the see in 1901, and retired to South wick, near Tewkesbury, where he died on 6 Nov. 1904. The Worcester diocese was divided under Perowne's successor and the see of Birmingham founded in 1905.
Perowne married in 1862 Anna Maria, daughter of Humphrey William Woolrych, serjeant-at-law, by whom he had four sons and one daughter, all of whom survived him.
Though a life-long evangelical, Perowne took a line independent of his party in regard to Biblical criticism, home reunion, and proposals for meeting ritual difficulties. As a bishop he accepted a difficult see late in life, but showed himself an industrious, capable administrator. There is a portrait of the bishop by the Hon. John Collier in the hall of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and another by Weigall at Hartlebury Castle.
Perowne's main work was the translation of and commentary on the Psalms (1864), of which a sixth edition appeared in 1886. His Hulsean lectures on Immortality were published in 1868. In acting as general editor of the 'Cambridge Bible for Schools' (1877, &c.), he directed a work of much greater importance than its' title suggests. He also edited Thomas Rogers on the 'Catholic Doctrine of the Church of England' (for the Parker Society, 1854); 'Remains of Connop Thirlwall, Bishop of St. David's' (1877); ’The Letters, Literary and Theological, of Connop Thirlwall' (1881); 'The Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools' (1881).
[The Times, 8 Nov. 1904; Record, 11 Nov. 1904; Lowndes, Bishops of the Day; Report of the Ecclesiastical Courts Commission, 1883; Report of the Birmingham Church Congress, 1893; private information.]