most remarkable of his collections was one of glass, on which he spent 8,000l. An elaborate catalogue was prepared, under the editorship of Sir A. W. Franks, richly illustrated, and with a preliminary dissertation by Alexander Nesbitt (privately printed, London, 1871, large 4to). Slade was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1866. He frequently contributed to the exhibitions of the Archæological Institute, and some of the curious objects in his collections were illustrated and described in their journal. Slade died unmarried at Walcot Place on 29 March 1868, and his will was proved on 21 April. The personalty was sworn under 160,000l. Under the fifth codicil the testator bequeathed to the British Museum his valuable collection of ancient and modern glass, his Japanese carvings, and a selection of his pottery made by his friend and executor, Sir A. W. Franks. He bequeathed 3,000l. to be laid out upon additions to his collection of glass. A selection of his choice engravings and manuscripts, on which he had spent 16,000l., was also bequeathed to the museum, together with samples of his specimens of ancient binding. The testator then directed that 35,000l. should be expended upon the endowment of (Slade) professorships for promoting the study of the fine arts at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and at University College, London, with an additional endowment to the latter of six art scholarships of 50l. each per annum for students under nineteen. The first Slade professor in London was Sir Edward Poynter, whose inaugural lecture (giving some account of the disposition of Slade's bequest) was delivered at University College on 2 Oct. 1871 (Poynter, Lectures on Art, 1879). Mr. Ruskin was the first Slade professor at Oxford, and Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt at Cambridge. Slade's munificence to charitable institutions was scarcely less extensive.
A coloured chalk portrait by Mrs. Margaret Sarah Carpenter [q. v.], dated 1851, is in the print room at the British Museum.
[Gent. Mag. 1868, i. 688; Times, 31 March 1868; Yorkshire Post, 4 April 1868; Leeds Mercury, Suppl. 4 April 1868; Cooper's Mag. of Biogr. i. 186 (containing a lucid account of Slade's Art Benefactions); Archæolog. Journal (1861), xviii. 280; Waagen's Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, 1857, pp. 217 seq.; Guide to Slade Collection of Prints in the Brit. Museum, 1869; Cat. to Slade Collection of Glass, ed. Franks, 1869.]
SLADE, JAMES (1783–1860), divine and author, born at Daventry, Northamptonshire, on 2 May 1783, was eldest son of the Rev. James Slade, fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Elizabeth Waterfield. He was educated by his father until he went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1804 as ninth wrangler. He became fellow and tutor of his college, and was ordained at Peterborough Cathedral deacon in 1806 and priest in 1807. He was curate of Willingham from 1806 till 1811, and in 1812 he married Augusta, daughter of the rector there, George Henry Law [q. v.], successively bishop of Chester and of Bath and Wells. In the same year he became vicar of Milton, near Cambridge, and in 1813 rector of Teversham. He was appointed examining chaplain by his father-in-law, Bishop Law, and prebendary of Chester in 1816. In 1817 he exchanged the rectory of Teversham for the vicarage of Bolton-le-Moors. During the nearly forty years that Slade was vicar of Bolton he was seldom absent from his church and parish, except for residence as prebendary at Chester. In the same year as he was inducted into Bolton he obtained a king's preachership for the county of Lancaster. From 1818 to 1826 he held (with Bolton) the living of Tattenhall; from 1826 to 1829 the rectorship of Northenden, and from 1829 till his death that of West Kirby.
As vicar of Bolton Slade attained a wide reputation. A stirring preacher and an able expositor of scripture, he was popular with all parties. He was select preacher at the primary visitation of John Bird Sumner [q. v.], bishop of Chester, in 1829, and at that of James Prince Lee [q. v.], first bishop of Manchester, in 1851. During his vicariate fourteen churches were built and consecrated. He was also rural dean of Bolton.
In advance of his time on many questions, he was eminently so on church reform and education. In a striking letter to the bishop of London (Blomfield) in 1830 he advocated church reform as to (1) the revenues of the church; (2) ecclesiastical laws; (3) discipline; (4) want of ministerial agency and places of worship; (5) revision of the liturgy; (6) disposal of church preferment by sale. In days when little attention was paid to the education of the working classes he threw himself heart and soul into their mental and spiritual improvement. The Bolton parish church Sunday schools became famous under his care. Over thirteen hundred scholars of all ages, from six to forty years, attended those schools, and there were one hundred teachers. In 1846 he founded the Church of England Educational Institution for boys and girls of the middle class and for evening students, which became an important factor in the education of the town, having in 1892 over one thousand day and evening pupils.
