ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



at Newark to come and open their new house, he took the mail-coach on Friday 

 the 9th in the evening, and reached Newark about four in the afternoon of 

 the following day. He had, however, so heavy a cold and so little voice 

 that he could not preach that evening. On Sunday, having partly recovered, 

 he preached in the new meeting house at nine, and again at half-past five, 

 when the service was attended by the mayor and aldermen and there was a 

 great crowd. In November of this year Wesley paid his last visit but one to 

 Nottingham. He described the ' preaching house as one of the most elegant 

 in England,' and stated that he had a ' lovely congregation.' He preached a 

 charity sermon for the County Infirmary, which he praised in enthusiastic 

 fashion. In June of the same year( 1787) he preached at Misterton and at 

 Newby near Haxey, and on Sunday 1 3 July at Nottingham for the last time. 



The church history of Nottinghamshire for the first forty years of the 

 19th century was uneventful, and was distinguished by no men of special 

 eminence. There were few counties in England which benefited more than 

 Nottinghamshire from the Statutes which did away with the holding of 

 benefices in plurality, an evil that had been rampant for fully six centuries. 



The incorporation of Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1836 speedily 

 began to work for good in this shire. The alteration in the establishment of 

 Southwell is referred to in the subsequent account of that minster church. 

 The statute 6 & 7 William IV, cap. 'jj^ in its wholesale readjustment of the 

 revenues, patronage and extent of the episcopal sees, took Nottinghamshire 

 out of the province and diocese of York and transferred it to the province of 

 Canterbury and the diocese of Lincoln, which was otherwise much reduced 

 in size. 



When Dr. Christopher Wordsworth was consecrated to the see of 

 Lincoln in 1869, that learned and most zealous prelate found that the work 

 involved in the episcopal supervision of the two counties of Lincoln and 

 Nottingham could not be maintained with efficiency. In the first year of his 

 episcopate. Bishop Wordsworth petitioned the Crown ' that he might have 

 the assistance of a bishop suffragan according to the ancient use of this realm 

 before and after the Reformation.' The petition was granted and in accor- 

 dance with the suffragan Act of Henry VIII, two names were presented to 

 the Crown. The choice fell upon Henry Mackenzie, Archdeacon of 

 Nottingham, and on 2 February 1870 he was consecrated at St. Mary's, 

 Nottingham. A particular interest was given to the service by the presence 

 of Alexander Lycurgus a bishop of the Greek Church.^'' 



Bishop Mackenzie died on 15 October 1877, and in the following 

 December he was succeeded as suffragan Bishop of Nottingham by Edward 

 TroUope, who died in December 1893. 



Bishop Wordsworth was not, however, satisfied with this suffragan 

 arrangement, although he was faithfully served by both his assistant bishops 

 who took their title from the county. He laboured continuously for the 

 subdivision of his diocese and made great pecuniary sacrifices to secure it. 

 In 1868 an Act was passed providing that, when an income of ^^3,000 a 

 year had been raised, bishops might be consecrated for the sees of Southwell, 

 Wakefield, Newcastle and Liverpool. At last on the festival of Sts. Philip 

 and James, 1884, Bishop Wordsworth had the satisfaction of taking part with 



"'Z);V. Hist, of Lincoln, 358-9. 



77 



