212 Memoir of the Rev. John Frederic Bigge. 



thoroughly revered and loved by his parishioners. But Oving- 

 haru was not destined to hold him long : for in 1847 he received 

 from the Lord Chancellor, through the interest of Earl Grey, the 

 offer of the living of Stamfordham, vacant b} r the death of the 

 Eev. Mr Thurlow ; which he accepted, and not without a pang 

 of regret, left his peaceful and beautiful home on the banks of 

 the Tyne. Not without regret, for he left behind him a church 

 in which he had taken a warm and discriminating interest, a body 

 of attached friends in his parishioners, and a little son, his eldest 

 child, hying in the churchyard, fallen asleep at two years old. 

 But the distance of separation was not great, nor sufficient to 

 detach him from his friends : for, singularly enough, the parish 

 of Stamfordham "marched" with the parish of Ovingham ; the 

 boundaries of the two parishes meeting on the northern side of 

 the latter. His accustomed haunts were still within reach ; still 

 in the midst of the objects which he knew and loved; still, as 

 before, midway between Newcastle and Hexham ; still in his 

 native county ; not to be detached from the old friends who knew 

 and esteemed him ; but to have, henceforth, the opportunity of 

 forming new connections, and enlarging the sphere of his public 

 and private duties. For the thirtj'-seven years during which Mr 

 Bigge held the living of Stamfordham were a busj r time ; includ- 

 ing not only the cares of his parish, but a great amount of exterior 

 labour and responsibilities. The regard in which he was held, 

 and the estimate of his personal' worth and integrity, were 

 sufficiently shewn in the offices, public and private, which were 

 heaped upon him. Friends were anxious to have Mr Bigge for 

 a Trustee, a position which to him, as to so many others, brought 

 no small amount of anxiety and but little thanks. He was for 

 many years a Poor Law Guardian, and attended regularly to the 

 duties of the office. The opinion of him entertained by his brother 

 clergy was shewn by their electing him one of the Proctors to 

 represent the Archdeaconry of Northumberland in the Con- 

 vocation of the Northern Province, an office which he held for 

 many } r ears until lus death, and the duties of which he performed 

 most punctually ; whilst by the Bishop of Durham, then his 

 diocesan, he was appointed Rural Dean of the Deanery of 

 Corbridge ; a position of trust which he eventualby resigned, 

 holding (unnecessarily, as many thought) that the duties of 

 Proctor in Convocation and Rural Dean should not be in one 

 hand. On the formation of the Bishopric of Newcastle, the 



