Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/249

 Atterbury was also on terms of intimacy with Sir Isaac Newton and with Arbuthnot, Gay, and Prior: and in spite of political and religious differences, he was friendly with Addison, who describes him as 'one of the greatest geniuses of his age.' Atterbury officiated, as dean of Westminster, at Addison's funeral, and was observed to be deeply affected during the ceremony. Bolingbroke also was a friend of Atterbury, and so was Dr. South, whose funeral sermon he preached. But the man for whom, next to his own family, Atterbury had the deepest affection, and of whose kindness and sympathy he is never tired of speaking, was Sir Jonathan Trelawney, bishop of Exeter, and subsequently of Winchester. His intimacy with Bishop Trelawney enabled him to do a service to one of the most learned and least appreciated clergymen of the day, Joseph Bingham, to whom he had the honour of first drawing the bishop's attention. He was also a friend to another learned clergyman of retiring habits, John Strype, the antiquary; and among his most enthusiastic admirers was Samuel Wesley the younger, who knew him when Atterbury was dean and Wesley one of the masters at Westminster. Lastly, he numbered among his most intimate friends the amiable and able Dr. Smalridge, the 'Favonius' of the 'Tatler.' Smalridge succeeded him both at Carlisle and Christ Church, and is reported to have said: 'Atterbury comes first, and sets everything on fire, and I follow with a bucket of water.'

Atterbury lived in exile nearly nine years. His first residence was at Brussels, but his health was so bad there that he removed to Paris, his faithful daughter acting as 'the kindest of nurses to the best of fathers,' as her husband expressed it. At Paris she left him, recovered in health, and the bishop threw himself heart and soul into James's cause, acting as a general adviser and supervisor of his affairs at home and abroad. The service was not a smooth one, owing partly to the impracticable character of the master, and partly to the petty jealousies and self-seeking of the followers. James, in 1725, described Atterbury as 'one in whose fidelity and ability he placed the greatest trust and confidence,' but he acted towards him in so different a spirit that in 1728 Atterbury quitted his service. The lonely old man had other troubles. His only surviving son, Osborn, was a constant source of anxiety to him. His brother Lewis, whom he had declined to appoint archdeacon of Rochester, never quite forgave the slight, and behaved shabbily in money transactions between them [see ]. He was once nearly involved in trouble with the French police, being suspected of having helped Père Courayer in his escape to England. Courayer's offence was simply an inclination towards the Anglican in preference to the Gallican church, and it is highly probable that Atterbury, who was from first to last a staunch Anglican, may have influenced the father, with whom he had certainly been intimate. But Atterbury's great sorrow was the loss of that daughter who, with her husband, had been his greatest earthly comfort and support. After Atterbury's rupture with James he left Paris for the south of France, in the hope of restoring his failing health, and settled at Montpelier. His daughter in England, whose health was also failing, felt a longing desire to see her father once more; and as he could not go to her she determined at all hazards to go to him. Unfortunately, the weather proved most unfavourable for a sea voyage; and when Bordeaux was at length reached, Mrs. Morice was all but a dying woman. Her father had been as anxious to see her as she to see him. 'I live only,' he writes with real pathos, 'to help towards lengthening your life, and rendering it, if I can, more agreeable to you. I see not of what use I can be in other respects.' The meeting took place at Toulouse, it being found impossible to convey the dying woman as far as Montpelier. The bishop was just in time to administer to her the last rites of the church: she died within twenty hours after her arrival. A most interesting correspondence between the bereaved father and his faithful friend Pope on the sad subject is extant. Atterbury had not many friends left; his Jacobite helpers in England had dropped off one by one; his son-in-law, Mr. Morice, was most faithful to him; and the old man took the greatest interest in his grandchildren, who paid him a visit. He had also a most devoted friend in the Dowager Duchess of Buckingham. He survived his daughter two years, and actually entered once more into James's service, and his last letter was one of advice to that very impracticable master. He also wrote in his last days a dignified vindication of himself against the aspersions of Oldmixon, who accused him of tampering with the new edition of Lord Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion.' The end came suddenly at last, in 1732. His body was conveyed to England, and buried privately in Westminster Abbey.

Atterbury cannot be regarded as a perfect character or as a great divine; but he was a very able man, and in his way a brave and faithful son of the church. If he mingled