WHATELY, RICHARD, 1787-1863.
 Letter, 1831 Sept. 25.

MANUSCRIPT NUMBER 102

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CITATION:  Richard Whately Letter, MSS 102, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University.

Richard Whately was born in London on February 1, 1787, the youngest of nine children of the Reverend Joseph and Jane Whately.  He attended Oriel College, Oxford, where he received the B.A. in 1808.  Whately was elected as a fellow at Oriel in 1811, and took the M.A. in 1812. He was a member of the Oxford circle which found fault with the traditional tenets of the Anglican Church. In 1814 he became an Anglican minister.  Whately married Elizabeth Pope on July 18, 1821. In 1825 Whately took the degrees of B.D. and D.D.  He was appointed principal of St. Alban Hall at Oxford that same year.  John Henry Newman (Mss. 100) became his vice principal and was influenced by Whately's anti-Erastianism. The two disagreed over the Oxford Movement, however, and Whately criticized Newman's Tract 90.  Whately was elected to a professorship of political economy at Oxford in 1829.  He remained in this post until   1831 when he was appointed archbishop of Dublin on October 23. In November of that same year, he was appointed to head the commission of "united national education."  He collaborated with the Catholic archbishop, Daniel Murray (Mss. 97) in an experiment to produce a religion course for the national schools that would accomodate both Anglicans and Catholics. After a prolonged illness Richard Whately died in Dublin on October 1, 1863. 

This is a letter from Richard Whately addressed to Lady Mary Shepherd, dated September 25, 1831. In the letter Whately explains that he had separate copies of one article from the 4th edition of his Elements of Logic printed for his friends who already owned the earlier edition. All other articles in the 4th edition were unchanged from earlier editions.  Whately briefly discusses the nature of God and recommends that Lady Shepherd read works by Samuel Hinds, a noted theologian of the time.  He also alludes to his recent appointment as Archbishop of Dublin.