ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



there is no trace of protest or dissatisfaction in the county at the time of his 

 appointment. Friction there was, but it was due to reasons which touched 

 the men of the bishopric in a more tender part. He got into great difficulty 

 by an attempt to pass through Parliament a Bill * to enable archbishops, 

 bishops, colleges, deans and chapters, hospitals, parsons, vicars, and others 

 having spiritual promotions, to make leases of their mines, which have not 

 been accustomably letten, not exceeding the term of one-and-twenty years, 

 without taking any fine upon the pecovering or granting of the same.' It 

 was construed as an attempt on the bishop's part to divert a great deal of 

 money to the use of his own family, who would naturally prove the chief 

 recipients of the benefit of such leases. 118 An urgent petition was promoted 

 against the bill, and proved successful. The stigma of the attempt, however, 

 attached to the bishop, who entered the diocese for the first time after the 

 humiliation of his failure. It has been represented that he now brought into 

 the diocese several promising men, on whose friendship and loyalty he might 

 rely in order to counteract his unpopularity. Be that as it may, so far as the 

 motive is concerned, Joseph Butler, promoted to the rectory of Haughton-le- 

 Skerne, was one of those ready to welcome him when he made an unusually 

 impressive' 1 ' entry into the diocese in 1723, as also Thomas Rundle, his 

 favourite chaplain, recently appointed to the rectory of Sedgefield, and to a 

 prebend in the cathedral. In 1724 Seeker and Benson were both collated to 

 prebends which were steps to subsequent bishoprics. During the nine years 

 of his episcopate at Durham, Talbot made seven appointments to canonries, 

 two to archdeaconries, and had to fill most of the important benefices in his 

 gift. Of all his appointments none is more interesting than his introduction 

 to the diocese of Butler, his son's college friend, who was destined to do his 

 most important work in a diocese to which he afterwards returned as bishop. 

 Exchanging the rectory of Haughton-le-Skerne for Stanhope in Weardale in 

 1726, Butler now gave up his preachership at the Rolls Chapel, in London, 

 and devoted himself to the composition of the Analogy which was published 

 in 1736. The first edition of his Sermons appeared in the year that he first 

 went to Stanhope. The bishop's great friend, Rundle, seems to have lived 

 much at Auckland with his patron, and as Stanhope was easily accessible 

 from the Castle, it is probable that Butler was frequently there. 



Bishop Chandler (1730-50) came to Durham with a great reputation 

 as a successful controversialist in the Deistic disputes which had been long 

 engaging the attention of the more serious thinkers of the day. His chief 

 work appeared in 1725 under the title of A defence of Christianity from 

 the Prophecies of the Old Testament^ and was intended as a reply to the 

 famous treatise of Collins, Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion. 

 No further work, however, came from his pen after his translation to the 

 north," and no trace of contact with Butler survives, although the rector of 



'" Particulars are given in Hutchinson with the comments of Spearman. 



*" His appearance at a review was much commented on : ' I hope you have seen Thursday's Flying Post, 

 and read the martial equipage in which the Bp. of Durham appeared at the review : "an haec est tunica filii 

 tui ? " But it may be proper for a Palatine or Lord Lieutenant. I think he should be made General of the 

 Ecclesiastics as Peterboro' [Kennett] is of the Marines.' 16 June, 1722, Portland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. 

 vii), 328. 



"" The brilliant band of clergymen introduced by Talbot were beginning to disappear. Seeker went in 

 1734, Rundle in 1735, Benson in 1735- 



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