Edward Bickersteth

BICKERSTETH, Edward. b. Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland, 19 March 1786; d. Watton, Hertfordshire, 28 February 1850. Educated at Kirkby Lonsdale Grammar School, he moved to London in 1801 to work at the General Post Office. He then studied law, and practised as a solicitor at Norwich (1812-15). He became active in local evangelical circles, publishing A Help to the Study of the Scriptures (1815). In that year he was ordained (deacon and priest, 1815), and began work for the Church Missionary Society, for which he carried out a successful inspection of the missionary work in Sierra Leone. He became Secretary of the CMS in 1824, resigning to become rector of Watton, Norfolk, in 1830. He remained...