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[Bookplate for Charles Girdlestone]

In black ink, this bookplate consists of text surrounded by a floral border. At the top centre of the border is a scallop shell.

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Girdlestone, Charles

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Charles Girdlestone (1797-1881) was a biblical scholar, and second son of Samuel Rainbow Girdlestone (1766-1836), a chancery barrister, and his wife, Caroline Roberts Powell. He was born in London in March 1797. He was educated at Tonbridge School, under Vicesimus Knox, and in 1815 he was entered as a commoner at Wadham College, Oxford. In 1818 he graduated BA, with a first class in classics and a second in mathematics. In the same year he was elected to an open fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford. He was appointed catechetical, logical, and mathematical lecturer in the college. He was ordained deacon in 1820 and priest in 1821, when he also became MA. He was classical examiner for degrees at Oxford in 1825-6, and select preacher to the university in 1825 and 1830. In 1826 he married Anne Elizabeth, only daughter of Baker Morrell, solicitor to the University of Oxford. Anne Elizabeth survived him by about a year. They had one daughter, who died in infancy, and eight sons, of whom seven survived him. In 1843-4 he was one of the earliest supporters of the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrial Classes, and in 1845 he published twelve Letters on the Unhealthy Condition of the Lower Class of Dwellings. His principal work was his commentary on the Bible, which occupied him for several years. The New Testament was first published in two volumes between 1832 and 1835, and the Old Testament in four volumes, in 1842. Charles Girdlestone died at Holywell House, Weston-super-Mare, on 28 April 1881. Works by Charles Girdlestone can be found in the UBC Library Catalogue.
References:
1) Information on Charles Girdlestone found at: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10772?_fromAuth=1 (Accessed: 7 November 2007).
2) R. H. Trainor, Black Country élites: the exercise of authority in an industrialised area, 1830-1900 (1993).

RBSC Bookplates

2007

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