Charles Daubeny (archdeacon)

Charles Daubeny (1745–1827) was an English churchman and controversialist, who became archdeacon of Salisbury.

The second son of George Daubeny, a Bristol merchant, he was baptized 16 August 1745, educated at a private school at Philip's Norton, and sent when 15 years old to Winchester College. Shortly after his admission he fell ill, was incapacitated for more than a year, and never entirely recovered. He became head boy of the school, and at age 18 gained an exhibition at New College, Oxford, where he later became a Fellow.

Coming of age, his father having died, he inherited a fortune, but the state of his health constrained him. In 1770 he went abroad to the German mineral springs. In 1771 he visited St. Petersburg, where, by the influence of the Princess Dashkow, whose acquaintance he had made in Paris, he was introduced at court, and made some study of Greek Catholicism.

On his return to England in 1772 he resided for some months at Oxford to prepare for holy orders, a necessary qualification to his admission to a fellowship at Winchester College. He was ordained deacon in 1773 by the Bishop of Oxford, and priest in the following week by Richard Terrick, bishop of London, and in the same year graduated B.C.L. He obtained his fellowship in 1774, but only held it for two years, when the college living of North Bradley, Wiltshire, was offered him. This living was poor and the parish neglected. He now married a Miss Barnston, and until his vicarage could be made habitable lived at Clifton. He set about restoring his church, and supplemented the Sunday morning service by others in the evening and during the week. He also rebuilt the vicarage, raised the income of the living, and started a Sunday school. He was at first unpopular with his parishioners, both on account of his orthodoxy (most of the inhabitants being dissenters), and because he had pulled down cottages to enlarge the vicarage grounds.

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