Francis Hare (bishop)

Francis Hare (1671–1740) was an English churchman and classical scholar, bishop of St Asaph from 1727 and bishop of Chichester from 1731.

Born on 1 November 1671, he was son of Richard Hare of Leigh, Essex. His mother, his father's second wife, was Sarah, daughter of Thomas Naylor. He was educated at Eton College, and admitted in 1688 to King's College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1692, M.A. in 1696, and D.D. in 1708. At Cambridge he was tutor of Robert Walpole and the Marquis of Blandford, son of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, who died in his college on 20 February 1703.

In 1704 Hare was appointed chaplain-general to the army in Flanders. He described the campaign of 1704 in a series of letters to his cousin, George Naylor of Herstmonceux Castle, and in a journal preserved by William Coxe. In 1710 he again joined the camp at Douai. Hare received a royal chaplaincy under Queen Anne, and he was elected fellow of Eton in October 1712. He was rector of Barnes, Surrey, 1713 to 1723, and held a prebend in St Paul's Cathedral from 1707 till his death. In 1715 he was appointed dean of Worcester, and in 1722 Henry Pelham, younger brother of his sister-in-law, Lady Grace Naylor, being two of the children of Thomas Pelham, 1st Baron Pelham, made him usher to the exchequer. In October 1726 he exchanged Worcester for the deanery of St Paul's, which he held till his death, and on 19 December 1727 was consecrated bishop of St Asaph. He had been dismissed from his chaplaincy about 1718, in consequence of his share in the Bangorian controversy, when he joined the assailants of Bishop Benjamin Hoadly.

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