William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford

William Kirkpatrick Riland Bedford (1826–1905) was an English clergyman and author, known as an antiquary and genealogist, and also as a cricketer.

Born at Sutton Coldfield rectory on 12 July 1826, he was eldest of five sons of William Riland Bedford the rector, by his wife Grace Campbell, daughter of Charles Sharpe of Hoddam, Dumfriesshire; Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe was his mother's brother. After education at Sutton Coldfield grammar school, Bedford won a Queen's scholarship at Westminster School in 1840, and qualified for a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford. An attack of scarlet fever made him miss that chance, and on 6 June 1844 he matriculated as a commoner at Brasenose College. In 1847 he was secretary of the Oxford Union Society when Lord Dufferin was president. He graduated B.A. in 1848 and proceeded M.A. in 1852.

In 1849 Bedford was ordained to the curacy of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, and in 1850 he succeeded his uncle, Dr. Williamson, as rector of Sutton Coldfield. He held the post for 42 years, and was rural dean for 25.

Bedford died at Cricklewood on 23 January 1905; his ashes were buried after cremation at Golders Green.

Bedford wrote on the antiquities of Sutton Coldfield in Three Hundred Years of a Family Living, being a History of the Rilands of Sutton Coldfield (1889), and The Manor of Sutton, Feudal and Municipal (1901). He was a frequent contributor to Notes and Queries. From 1878 to 1902 he was chaplain of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, and in his capacity of official genealogist he compiled works dealing with the history and regulations of the Knights Hospitallers, including Malta and the Knights (1870; 2nd edit. 1894), Notes on the Old Hospitals of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (1881), and a history of the English Hospitallers (1902) in collaboration with R. Holbeche.

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