Edward Vernon-Harcourt

Edward Vernon-Harcourt (1757-1847) was Archbishop of York from 1807 until his death at the age of 90. As a younger son of a wealthy land-owning family, Archbishop Harcourt depended on good family and political connections to make progress in the Church. He had to combine his responsibility for one of the largest dioceses in the Church of England with his duties in parliament and at court and with providing for his family of 16 children. More supportive of reform of both parliament and the church than most of his fellow bishops, Harcourt took steps to improve the training of ordinands in his diocese, encouraged the building of over 100 new churches to cope with population growth in the industrial towns of the West Riding and made some progress in tackling pluralism and non-residence. He was not afraid to stand up for a cause he believed to be right. In this biography, Tony Vernon-Harcourt examines the professional and family life of one of the last aristocratic bishops in the Church of England.