Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Goodwin, Harvey

by Henry Maxwell Spooner

GOODWIN, HARVEY (1818–1891), bishop of Carlisle, born at King's Lynn in 1818, was son of Charles Goodwin, a solicitor in King's Lynn, where the family had been settled for two generations. His mother was Frances Sawyer, a descendant, on her mother's side, of the Wycliffes of Wycliffe, of which family John Wycliffe, the reformer, was a scion. One of his brothers was Charles Wycliffe Goodwin [q. v.], the egyptologist.

From 1825 to 1833 he was educated at a private school at High Wycombe. Before going into residence at Cambridge, he joined a party at Keswick and read with William Hepworth Thompson [q. v.], then a fellow, afterwards master, of Trinity College, Cambridge. He was admitted pensioner of Gonville and Caius College on 16 Nov. 1835, and soon gave evidence of his ability, especially in mathematics. From Lady-day 1837 to Michaelmas 1839 he was scholar of his college. In his second year he became a pupil of the well-known private tutor, William Hopkins [q. v.], and in the mathematical tripos of 1839 came out second to Robert Leslie Ellis [q. v.] (afterwards coeditor with Spedding of Bacon's works), who was senior wrangler that year. He was elected second Smith's prizeman, Ellis being first. In 1840 he won the Schuldham prize, and in 1844 delivered the Wortley speech. He graduated B.A. in 1840 and M.A. in 1843.

Immediately after graduating B.A. he was appointed to a mathematical lectureship at Caius, and at Michaelmas 1841 became fellow of his college. In 1842 he was ordained deacon, and priest in 1844. His intimate friends at Cambridge, besides Leslie Ellis and Charles Frederick Mackenzie [q. v.], whose life he wrote in 1864, were Thorp (afterwards archdeacon), John Mason Neale [q. v.], Philip Freeman (archdeacon of Exeter), and Benjamin Webb [q. v.] With these he accepted advanced ecclesiological views, and in co-operation with Neale and Webb he set on foot in 1848 the Ecclesiological Society, which afterwards developed into the Cambridge Camden Society.

In 1844 he took charge, as locum tenens, of the parish of St. Giles, Cambridge. In the same year he preached for the first time in the university pulpit, and in the year following was nominated select preacher. In 1845 he preached before the British Association, which met at Cambridge.

After his marriage, in the same year, he continued to reside at Cambridge, taking pupils and occupying himself with parish work, and he was mainly instrumental in establishing the industrial school at Chesterton. In 1848 he was appointed to the incumbency of St. Edward's, Cambridge. It was here that he made his mark as a preacher, and influenced by his sermons not merely his parishioners but still more many successive generations of undergraduates, who used to flock to hear him every Sunday evening during term time, in greater numbers than the comparatively small building could hold. He retained his hold over the undergraduates till his departure from Cambridge in 1858. Meanwhile he was offered the bishopric of Grahamstown in 1853, which he refused. In November 1858 he was appointed by Lord Derby to the deanery of Ely, and in 1859 received from his university the degree of D.D., on which occasion the public orator, William George Clark [q. v.], spoke in the warmest terms of the important work he had done while resident at Cambridge. On 11 Dec. 1880 he was elected honorary fellow of Gonville and Caius, and in 1885 was created hon. D.C.L. of Oxford.

As dean of Ely Goodwin continued the work of the restoration of the cathedral begun by Dean Peacock, under Professor Willis's guidance, and he saw completed the painting of the nave roof, which was executed in part by Henry L'Estrange Styleman Le Strange [q. v.] of Hunstanton, and, after his death in 1862, completed by his friend, Thomas Gambier Parry [q. v.] The lantern also was rebuilt, the nave pavement relaid, the Galilee entrance restored, and a warming apparatus placed for the first time in the cathedral. While at Ely he served on two royal commissions, viz. those on clerical subscription and ritual.

In October 1869 he accepted Gladstone's offer of the bishopric of Carlisle, which see he held till his death. At Carlisle the bishop brought to bear on the work of the diocese the energy and ability which had made him a man of mark from his early Cambridge days. He infused a new spirit and vitality into all the existing organisations within the diocese, and he also found time to preach frequently in London and to attend the meetings of the great church societies, where he was always a welcome speaker. For many years before his death he was chairman of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa. It was in large part owing to his strenuous advocacy of the scheme that the Church House was selected as the Church of England's Jubilee Memorial in 1887, and he lived to see the foundation stone laid by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught. From his known interest in scientific subjects he was asked by the dean of Westminster to preach in the abbey on the Sunday after the funeral of Charles Darwin, 1 May 1882. He died on 25 Nov. 1891 at Bishopthorpe, while on a visit to Dr. Maclagan, archbishop of York, and was buried in the churchyard of Crosthwaite, Keswick. His monument in Carlisle Cathedral consists of a recumbent figure in bronze, executed by Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A.

There are extant two portraits of Goodwin by George Richmond, R.A.: one in crayons, taken when he was dean of Ely; a later one in oils, now in possession of his son, Harvey Goodwin, of Orton Hall, Westmoreland. An anonymous sketch portrait taken in 1839 is at Gonville and Caius College.

Goodwin married on 13 Aug. 1845 Ellen, eldest daughter of George King of Bebington Hall, Cheshire, and by her had three sons and four daughters.

Goodwin's literary activity was continuous throughout his career. Apart from numerous sermons and lectures and commentaries on the Gospels of St. Matthew (1857), St. Mark (1860), and St. Luke (1865), his principal publications were:

1. 'Elementary Course of Mathematics,' 1847; 5th edit. 1857; a popular educational manual.
2. 'Parish Sermons,' 1847-62, 5 vols.
3. Guide to the Parish Church,' Cambridge, 1855; new edition rewritten 1878.
4. 'Hulsean Lectures,' 1855.
5. 'The Doctrines and Difficulties of the Christian Faith,' 1856.
6. A new translation of the 'De Imitatione,' 1860; new edit. 1869.
7. 'Essays on the Pentateuch,' 1867.
8. 'Walks in the Region of Science and Faith,' a collection of essays, 1883.
9. 'The Foundations of the Creed,' 1889; 3rd edit. 1899.

He was also an occasional contributor to the 'Quarterly Review' and to the 'Contemporary Review' and the 'Nineteenth Century.'

[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Venn's Biogr. Hist. of Gonville and Caius College; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Burke's Peerage, 1890; Times, 26-30 Nov. 1891; Graduati Cantab.]

H. M. S-r.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.294
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

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329	i	l.l.	Goodwin, Harvey: for 1839 read 1840

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