Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/410

 drawing up Valentine Green's ‘Survey of the City of Worcester’ (1764), and was ‘a great historian, chronologist, and linguist,’ though he published nothing in his own name.

[Garbet's History of Wem, especially pp. 208, 209; Cat. Oxford Grad.; Gough's Brit. Topogr.; Nash's Worcestershire, ii. 25.] 

GARBETT, EDWARD (1817–1887), divine, was born at Hereford on 10 Dec. 1817, being the sixth son of the Rev. James Garbett (1775–1857), custos and prebendary of the cathedral. He was educated at Hereford College, whence he proceeded to Brasenose College, Oxford (19 May 1837). He proceeded B.A. in 1841, coming out with second-class honours ‘in litt. human.,’ and M.A. in 1847. In early years he had wished to be a doctor, but afterwards showed a decided preference for the work of the ministry. Garbett was accordingly ordained deacon by the Bishop of Hereford in 1841 and licensed to the curacy of Upton Bishop, of which his father was then vicar. In the following year he removed to Birmingham as curate of St. George's, under his cousin, the Rev. John Garbett. At Birmingham he obtained his first preferment, the vicarage of St. Stephen's. An opportunity of removing to London was accepted, and in 1854 Garbett became perpetual curate of St. Bartholomew's, Gray's Inn Road. He had already shown some capacity for journalistic work, and was in the same year appointed to the editorship of the ‘Record,’ a position he filled with marked ability until his resignation in 1867. During this period there were few subjects of ecclesiastical importance upon which he did not write with force and discernment. He was for some time also editor of the ‘Christian Advocate.’ But journalism did not disqualify him for successful work either in the pulpit or the parish. In 1860 he accepted the Boyle lectureship on the nomination of Bishop Tait, and in 1861 was appointed a select preacher at Oxford. In 1863 came a removal to the living of Christ Church, Surbiton, and in 1867 his appointment as Bampton lecturer at Oxford. In the same year he resigned the editorship of the ‘Record,’ but continued for some time to write with more or less regularity in its columns. In 1875 Garbett was appointed an honorary canon of Winchester, and in 1877 he accepted from the lord chancellor the living of Barcombe, Lewes. He had previously declined invitations to succeed Dr. Miller at St. Martin's, Birmingham, and to fill the fashionable pulpit of St. Paul's, Onslow Square, London. During the earlier gatherings of the Church Congress Garbett's aid was often asked. He read a paper at York in 1866, and again at the meetings of 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, and 1879. Garbett's health was much broken by his work at Barcombe, and on 11 Oct. 1886 he was stricken with paralysis. He never recovered, but the end was deferred until 11 Oct. 1887. In his ecclesiastical views Garbett moved with the evangelical party, whose cause he championed with unfailing vigour. A clever but candid controversialist, widely esteemed in his own circle, he was one of the many men whose friends have anticipated for them honours they never attained.

His works were: 1. ‘The Soul's Life,’ 1852. 2. ‘Sermons for Children,’ 1854. 3. ‘The Bible and its Critics’ (Boyle Lectures), 1860. 4. ‘The Divine Plan of Revelation’ (Boyle Lectures), 1863. 5. ‘The Family of God,’ 1863. 6. ‘God's Word Written,’ 1864. 7. ‘Religion in Daily Life,’ 1865. 8. ‘Dogmatic Truth’ (Bampton Lectures), 1867. 9. ‘Obligations of Truth,’ 1874.

[Record, 14 and 21 Oct. 1887; Foster's Alumni Oxon. ii. 506; information supplied by Mrs. Garbett.] 

GARBETT, JAMES (1802–1879), archdeacon of Chichester and professor of poetry at Oxford, born at Hereford in 1802, was eldest son of the Rev. James Garbett (1775–1857), prebendary of Hereford. He passed from the Hereford Cathedral School to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was elected to a scholarship, 15 May 1819. He obtained a first class in classics in 1822, along with Lord Shaftesbury and Sotheron Estcourt, and bore through life a high reputation as a classical scholar. He proceeded B.A. 1822 and M.A. 1825; was fellow of Queen's College, 1824–5; fellow of Brasenose College, 1825–36; tutor, 1827; Hulmeian lecturer in divinity, 1828; junior dean, 1832; and Latin lecturer, 1834. The college living of Clayton-cum-Keymer, Sussex, was conferred on him in 1835, and he held it till his death. Garbett was a representative evangelical, and strongly opposed the tractarian movement at Oxford. In 1842 he was Bampton lecturer, and tried to show the needlessness of tractarian changes. In the same year he was elected professor of poetry, in opposition to Isaac Williams, the tractarian candidate. He was re-elected professor in 1847, and held the post till 1852. Some of his lectures, all delivered in Latin, were published, and illustrate his finished scholarship. He is said to have declined the Ireland professorship of exegesis in 1847. He certainly refused a seat on the university commission in 1853. He explained in a published letter to B. P. Sy-