cons. 13 Oct. 1689 bp. of BRISTOL; transl. 29 July 1691 bp. of HEREFORD
First sat 25 Oct. 1689; last sat 7 Aug. 1701
b. 1632, 3rd s. Gilbert Ironside, later bp. of Bristol, and Elizabeth, da. of Edward Frenchman (Trencham). educ. Wadham, Oxf. matric. 1650, BA 1653, MA 1655, fell. 1656, BD 1664, DD 1666. m. c.1692, Mary, da. of John Robins of Matson, King’s Barton, Glos.1 d.s.p. d. 27 Aug. 1701; admon. 22 Sept. 1701 to wid.2
Chap. to Charles II 1672-87.
Rect. Winterbourne Farrington and Winterbourne Jermyn, Dorset 1663, Winterbourne Steepleton, Dorset 1666-89; canon, York 1664.
Warden, Wadham, Oxf. 1665-89; v.-chan. Oxf. 1687-9.
Likenesses: oil on canvas by unknown artist, c.1690, Wadham, Oxf.
Gilbert Ironside was born into a Gloucestershire family of clerics and Oxford academics. He was, according to Anthony Wood, a ‘Forward, saucy, domineering, impudent, lascivious’ man. He had a high regard for John Wilkins, the future bishop of Chester, but Wood recorded that Wilkins regarded him as ‘always a prating and proud coxcomb, as indeed he is.’ In December 1665 he began a reign of over 20 years as the warden of Wadham, falling out repeatedly with John Fell, the vice-chancellor of the university and future bishop of Oxford, who, again according to Anthony Wood, thwarted any attempt to promote him.3 Nevertheless, Ironside was himself nominated university vice chancellor in 1676 – a position he refused at the time on the grounds that he had insufficient income to support the dignity of office.4
In 1684, during the ‘Tory reaction’, Ironside took a hard line in support of Anglican uniformity; preaching at Whitehall against religious toleration, he insisted that religious separatists must be pressed into conformity by force.5 During the reign of James II, he was strongly identified with anti-Catholic activism at Oxford, spurred on by the university visitor, William Lloyd, bishop of St Asaph.6 Apparently unaware of the extent to which the new king resented anti-Catholic propaganda, in the spring of 1686 he complained that ‘after so many years’ attendance at court he had ‘not been considered at all for his service, but is fain to live still upon the scant commons of his college, which have almost worn out his teeth’ and used Lloyd as an intermediary in an attempt to persuade William Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, to exert himself in Ironside’s favour. Sancroft was asked to encourage Thomas Sprat, bishop of Rochester, to use his influence with ‘them that can best speak to his Majesty’ on Ironside’s behalf. Sprat had already recommended Ironside to Sancroft, suggesting that he be appointed to the deanery of Bristol. Ironside’s case was also espoused by Francis Turner, bishop of Ely.7
In 1687 Ironside accepted nomination as vice chancellor. During the Magdalen College affair he confronted James II, reminded the king that the Church had supported his cause during the Exclusion Crisis and did his utmost to stem the flow of Catholic appointments at Oxford.8 He made some efforts to prevent disturbances when the king’s commissioners, the lord chief justice, Sir Robert Wright‡ and Thomas Cartwright, bishop of Chester, conducted their visitation at Magdalen in October 1687. He also defended his position throughout the episode by rigorous adherence to university regulations.9
By 1688 Ironside found himself joining forces with Henry Hyde, 2nd earl of Clarendon, and George Jeffreys, Baron Jeffreys to oppose a quo warranto against the university’s charter.10 It was rumoured that he had grovelled to Jeffreys after the latter’s failure to be elected chancellor.11 In August 1688, he provocatively authorized the publication of a disputation by the Marian Oxford martyr Nicholas Ridley†, bishop of London on the eucharist, a transparent act of defiance against James II’s religious policy.12
In the immediate aftermath of the Revolution of 1688, Ironside’s loyalties were ambivalent. He absented himself when the mayor of Oxford proclaimed the new king and queen on 14 Feb. 1689.13 Yet a later (Tory-biased) account claimed that Ironside was ‘a great stickler’ for the prince of Orange, though motivated only by the prospect of gaining a bishopric. It was also reported that before William ‘had any pretended right to the crown from the Convention,’ Ironside administered the oath of allegiance to the new king in the Oxford Congregation House.14 Whatever the reality of his political and personal motivation, Ironside quickly allied himself to the new government by taking a firm stance against nonjurors and clamping down on rabble-rousing in the city’s coffee houses.15 His reward soon followed. The directive for his elevation to Bristol was issued on 28 Mar. 1689.16
Bristol was not a wealthy diocese, but it was geographically and politically strategic and Ironside was left in no doubt as to his political role. On 11 June 1689 Charles Talbot, 12th earl of Shrewsbury, contacted the new bishop about a seditious pamphlet circulating in Bristol. The king, Shrewsbury pointedly remarked, did not doubt Ironside’s ‘care and diligence in suppressing anything else of the same kind’.17 Although there is little evidence of his involvement in electoral politics in Bristol, Ironside’s Tory leanings matched those of the city’s parliamentary representatives, Sir Richard Hart‡ and Sir John Knight‡, and it seems most likely that he supported their role in civic governance.18
Ironside began a somewhat lacklustre parliamentary career on 25 Oct. 1689. His attendance never exceeded more than one half of sittings in any one session, and he absented himself altogether from four of the 13 sessions held during his episcopate. During this first session he was present for half the sittings. On 19 Nov. 1689 he protested against the bill to prevent clandestine marriages, on the grounds that marriage was not a matter for the secular authorities.
Ironside did not appear at the House for the first six weeks of the spring 1690 session and then attended on only five days. He was excused attendance on the grounds of sickness at a call of the House on 31 Mar. 1690. On 9 May 1690 he registered his proxy in favour of Henry Compton, bishop of London (vacated at the end of the session on 23 May 1690). Ironside did not attend the session that ran from 2 Oct. 1690 to 5 Jan. 1691, again registering his proxy in favour of Compton. His reluctance to attend the House proved to be no bar to promotion and in the spring of 1691 he was nominated as bishop of Hereford. His translation was greeted with outrage by the peevish William Beaw, bishop of Llandaff, who, wanting Hereford for himself, described how Ironside had been ‘upon the watch, and too quick’ for anyone else in the running.19
With Tory Herefordshire dominated by the Harleys of Brampton Bryan and overseen by the dukes of Beaufort, Ironside must have found his new post rather more agreeable than Bristol. He took his seat as bishop of Hereford on 6 Nov. 1691, attending the session that opened on 22 Oct. 1691 for just 11 days (ten per cent of sittings), missing the first two weeks and the last three months of business. From 24 Nov. his proxy was again held by Compton. The next parliamentary session opened on 4 Nov. 1692; Ironside arrived 11 days into the session and attended for 54 per cent of sittings, his highest level of attendance (perhaps prompted by the proposal for legislation about placemen and the Norfolk divorce).
Ironside firmly supported the court over the place bill. On 31 Dec. 1692 he voted against its committal; four days later, on 3 Jan. 1693, he voted against the passing of the bill. Early in January he was also opposed to the reading of the divorce bill of Henry Howard, 7th duke of Norfolk, but in this he was out of kilter with the other bishops nominated by William III. He appears to have opposed the bill on doctrinal grounds, but it is equally possible that he voted against the measure out of sympathy with the Tory duchess of Norfolk. On 25 Jan. he voted against committal of the bill to prevent dangers from disaffected persons.
Ironside was not present at the start of the November 1693 session; he arrived a week into the session and then attended for a little over one half of sittings. On 17 Feb. 1694 he voted against a reversal of chancery’s dismissal of the cause between Ralph Montagu, earl of Montagu and John Granville, earl of Bath, in their dispute over the Albemarle inheritance. During the summer recess of 1694, he ordered the defacing of the memorial inscription for the recently deceased Member of the Commons for Weobley, John Birch‡, since its wording appeared to sanction both the civil wars and the regicide.20 The action infuriated Birch’s family, but the memorial remained in its vandalized condition until after Ironside’s death.
Ironside was absent for the whole of the 1694-5 session. On 16 Feb. 1695 his proxy was registered to Compton who held it to the end of the session. He did attend the 1695-6 session for 45 per cent of sittings, but missed the first five weeks of business. On 31 Mar. 1696 he registered his dissent against the bill to encourage the bringing in of plate to the Mint. On 10 Apr. Ironside was one of 14 bishops to sign the ‘repugnance’ at the public absolution by nonjuring clerics for the Jacobites, Sir William Parkyns and Sir John Freind‡.21
Ironside again arrived five weeks late for the 1696-7 session, attending 36 per cent of sittings. He was named to three committees, one involving the state of trade, another concerning James Butler, 2nd duke of Ormond (whom Ironside knew in his capacity as Oxford chancellor). This session again revealed Ironside’s innate Toryism. In December 1696, despite pressure from the court and his archbishop, he opposed the bill to attaint the Jacobite Sir John Fenwick‡. On 18 and 23 Dec. he was one of the eight Tory bishops to register their dissent against the second and third readings of the bill, grounding their opposition in the evidential irregularities that had enabled Fenwick to be convicted and concluding that he was too ‘inconsiderable a man’ to warrant such extraordinary proceedings. After 18 Mar. 1697 Compton again held Ironside’s proxy (vacated nine days later when Ironside arrived in the House).
The following session (1697-8) saw Ironside present for 47 per cent of sittings and named to 22 committees. He was also present throughout the passage of the Hereford workhouses legislation in May 1698. On 15 Mar. 1698 he voted for the committal of the bill to punish the Tory goldsmith, Charles Duncombe‡, for the false endorsement of exchequer bills and, on 25 May he was appointed as one of the managers of the conference on the bill to suppress blasphemy. He missed the last five weeks of the session, registering his proxy on 4 June in favour of his friend Thomas Sprat (vacated at the end of the session on 5 July 1698). He did not attend the 1698-9 or 1699-1700 sessions but did support the parliamentary candidature of the Harleyite Tory and Beaufort client, Robert Price‡ in the controverted Weobley election.22 Ironside attended the House for only a handful of days thereafter. In the session that opened on 6 Feb. 1701, he did not arrive at the House until 10 May 1701 and attended the session on only six days.
After several days’ illness in August 1701, Ironside died on 27 Aug. at the age of 69. He was buried in the church of St Mary Somerset, Thames Street, London but his remains were transferred to Hereford Cathedral in 1867.23 A confirmed bachelor until the age of 60, Ironside had surprised his contemporaries in 1692 by marrying a widow, sole heiress to her father’s Gloucestershire manor. He died intestate and his wealth at death is unknown.
B.A.- 1 VCH Glos. iv. 443.
- 2 TNA, PROB 6/77, f. 88.
- 3 Wood, Life and Times, iii. 224.
- 4 Prideaux Letters, 52.
- 5 [G. Ironside], Sermon Preached before the King Nov. 23 1684 (1685); Evelyn Diary, iv. 395.
- 6 Seventeenth Century Oxford, 918.
- 7 Bodl. Tanner 30, f. 14; 31, f. 233.
- 8 Bodl. Ballard 21, f. 12; Seventeenth Century Oxford, 949.
- 9 Cartwright Diary, 91-92; HMC Ormonde, n.s. vii, 495.
- 10 Seventeenth Century Oxford, 950.
- 11 Ellis Corresp. ii. 80.
- 12 N. Ridley, An Account of a Disputation at Oxford, Anno. Dom. 1554 (1688).
- 13 Eighteenth Century Oxford, 22-23.
- 14 Hearne, Remarks and Collections, i. 97.
- 15 Eighteenth Century Oxford, 22-3; Wood, iii. 309.
- 16 CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 45.
- 17 Ibid. 144.
- 18 HP Commons 1660-90, i. 237.
- 19 Add. 4292, f. 66; LPL, ms 930, f. 49.
- 20 HP Commons 1690-1715, iii. 218.
- 21 State Trials, xiii. 413.
- 22 HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 270.
- 23 Lansd. 987, f. 143.