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  in July 1664, in London, by Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, then archbishop of Canterbury, and in September in the same year he arrived at his palace of Rose Castle, near Dalston, in Cumberland. Thereupon he resigned his college mastership and his deanery of Peterborough, though he might have retained one or other in commendam with his bishopric. While thus giving up an assured income in obedience to his principles, he had to borrow money to defray the charges of his consecration, first-fruits, and his journey and settlement in his diocese, where the ruined state of his palace involved him in a heavy outlay on building, and in a protracted litigation about dilapidations with his predecessor and metropolitan, Sterne. Rainbowe found much in his diocese that required reform. Negligent clergy did not hesitate, when rebuked, to publicly affront their bishop, and his outspoken denunciation of immorality appears to have offended some great lady about the court, once a friend of his, who revenged herself by preventing his translation to Lincoln in 1668. Rainbowe's hospitality and liberality were unbounded. In years of scarcity, when his own stores were exhausted, he bought barley and distributed it to the poor, sometimes as many as seven or eight score being relieved in one day by the porter at Rose. To the poor at Carlisle and Dalston he made regular allowances. He paid for the education of poor boys at Dalston school, and for putting them out as apprentices; he supported poor scholars at the universities; he subscribed largely to the French protestants and to foreign converts.

Rainbowe died on 26 March 1684, and was buried, by his own request, at Dalston (1 April), under a plain stone, with a simple inscription. His wife Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Henry Smith (his predecessor as master of Magdalene), whom he married in 1652, survived him. After his death she resided chiefly at Dalemain with her sister's son, Sir Edward Hasell. She died in 1702, and was also buried in Dalston churchyard.

Small portraits on panel of Bishop Rainbowe and his wife are preserved at Dalemain. An oil portrait of Rainbowe is at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Another portrait of the bishop by Sturt forms the frontispiece of Banks's ‘Life,’ 1688, and was reproduced in 1798 by Richardson. A framed copy of this reproduction is at Rose Castle.

Rainbowe was famous as a preacher. In later life he abandoned the ornate rhetoric of his early days for exceptional plainness and perspicuity. Three only of his sermons were printed; the first of these, ‘Labour forbidden and commanded’ (London, 1635, 4to), was preached at St. Paul's Cross on 23 Sept. 1634 (cf. Brit. Mus. Cat. s.v. ‘Rainbow’). Rainbowe planned a treatise, to be called ‘Verba Christi,’ a collection of Christ's discourses and sayings, but it was never completed. With his life, by Jonathan Banks (anon. 1688, 16mo), appear some meditations by him, and one or two short poems, as well as the sermon preached at his funeral by his chancellor, Thomas Tullie.



RAINE, JAMES (1791–1858), antiquary and topographer, son of James Raine, by his wife Anne, daughter of William Moore, was born at Ovington in the parish of Wycliffe on 23 Jan. 1791. He was educated at Kirby Hill school, and subsequently at Richmond grammar school. From 1812 to 1827 he was second master of Durham school. Raine was ordained deacon on 25 Sept. 1814, and priest on 20 Sept. 1818. In 1816 he became librarian to the dean and chapter of Durham, and in 1822 he was presented by that body to the rectory of Meldon in Northumberland. Protracted litigation concerning the tithe at Meldon harassed Raine for many years; but in 1846 the House of Lords decided the dispute in his favour. In 1825 he was instituted principal surrogate in the consistory court, and in 1828 to the living of St. Mary in the South Bailey in the city of Durham. These several preferments he held until his death. The degree of M.A. was conferred upon him by the archbishop of Canterbury, at the request of Bishop Barrington, in November 1825. He was incorporated ad eundem gradum in the university of Durham, and the same body conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L. in 1857, in recognition of his literary eminence and of his long service as judge of the ecclesiastical court.

Raine formed in 1812 an acquaintance with Surtees, which was uninterrupted till the death of Surtees in 1834. This intimacy, and his position as librarian to the dean and chapter, served to stimulate Raine's inherent enthusiasm as an antiquary and topographer. His literary efforts were at first directed to the assistance of friends in the composition of topographical works. The county historians, Hodgson, Sharpe, and Surtees, all generously recorded their debts to Raine's laborious industry and unselfish assistance.