Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/411

Bagot BAGOT, LEWIS (1740–1802), bishop, was seventh son of Sir Walter Bagot, bart., and brother of the first Lord Bagot. Born 1 Jan. 1741, he was educated at Westminster, although not on the foundation, was with his brother a schoolfellow of Cowper, was sent to the university of Oxford, and was appointed a canoneer student of Christ Church, he wrote verses in 1761 — printed among the Oxford poems — on the death of George II and accession of George III. There is loyalty, but no inspiration, in them. Being very fragile in health, he was removed to Lisbon. On his return, considerably invigorated, he proceeded M.A. 23 May 1764. Having been admitted to holy orders, he was presented to the rectory of Jevington, and also of Rye, Sussex. Prior to this he had been made canon of Christ Church in the place of Moore, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1771. In this year he married a Miss Hay, niece of the Earl of Kinnoul, and sister of Dr. Hay, of Christ Church. He proceeded D.C.L. in 1772, and was installed in his deanery 25 Jan. 1777, on which he resigned his two livings. Dr. Bagot was consecrated bishop of Bristol 23 Feb. 1782, and held his deanery in commendam with the see, until his translation to Norwich in 1783. In March 1790 the good bishop was further translated to St. Asaph. He rebuilt the palace. Amiable, gentle, benevolent, humble, and laborious, he lived on intimate terms with his clergy and 'the common people.'

His 'Warburtonian Lecture' of 1780 on the 'Prophecies' is his only book. In 1781 he received the thanks of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for a gift of fifty copies of Dr. Barrow's 'Doctrine of the Sacraments,' which he had reprinted. The tract still remains on the society's lists. Through the same society he published a tractate on the 'Errors of the Anabaptists' (first printed at Reading 1776). He died in London 4 June 1802, but was buried at St. Asaph. His portrait, by Hoppner, is in Christ Church hall.

[Memoirs of the Bagot Family, 85; Catal. of Oxford Graduates; Hist, and Antiq. of Oxford, iii. 443, Appendix, 330; Nichols's Lit. Hist. V. 630; Santley's Confer, v. 114; Barret's Hist, of Bristol, 338-9; Gent. Mag. xli. 379, lxxxiii. 96; Alumni Westmonasterienses, 34, 351-2.]  BAGOT, RICHARD, D.D. (1782–1854), bishop successively of Oxford and of Bath and Wells, was the sixth son of William, first Lord Bagot, by Louisa St. John, daughter of the second Viscount Bolingbroke. Educated at Rugby, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1800, and proceeded B.A. in 1803, and M.A. in 1806. In 1804 he was elected to an All Souls' fellowship, which he resigned two years later, on his marriage with Lady Harriet Villiers, daughter of the Earl of Jersey. After taking holy orders in 1806, he was presented by his father to the rectory of Leigh, Staffordshire, and in 1807 to that of Blithfield. In the same year he became a canon of Windsor, and in 1817 was nominated to a canonry of Worcester. In 1829 he was consecrated bishop of Oxford, and received from his university the degree of D.D.

Bagot was bishop of Oxford at the date of the Oxford movement, and was reluctantly forced to play a part in its history. In the charge that he delivered to his clergy in 1838 he spoke of the frequency with which appeals had been made to him of late years to check breaches both of doctrine and discipline. But he declared that, so far as the authors of 'Tracts for the Times' had recalled forgotten truths, and drawn attention to the union, discipline, and authority of the church, they had done good service. He 'warned them, however, against creating schisms, or reverting to practices 'which heretofore have ended in superstition.' This mild warning was at first construed into a general censure of the 'Tracts' by their opponents; but Dr. Pusey, in a published letter to the bishop, interpreted it otherwise, and created the impression that Bagot sanctioned his views. In 1840 the bishop was implored by a clergyman of his diocese, in a long anonymous pamphlet, to condemn Dr. Pusey's opinions, and in the following year, on the publication of Tract XC, Bagot requested the author, Newman, to bring the series to an immediate close. His request was at once complied with, and the bishop continued to treat the Tractarians with marked courtesy. Late in 1841 he defended Newman in a letter to Pusey from the charge of having broken word with himself by republishing Tract XC (, Annals of the Tractarian Movement, 1861, p. 83). In 1842 Bagot rediscussed the movement at length in another charge to his clergy. He condemned the violent attacks made on the Tractarians, and spoke with respect of their leaders, although he felt no sympathy with their disciples; but he proceeded to expose, in decisive language, 'the lamentable want of judgment' exhibited in the writings of 'the advocates of catholic princples.' William Palmer dedicated to Bagot in admiring terms his account of the 'Tracts for the Times,' first published in 1845.

When the see of Bath and Wells fell vacant, in 1845, Bagot, at his own desire,