Charles Daubeny (priest)

Charles Daubeny (baptised 16 August 1745 – 10 July 1827) was an English churchman and controversialist, who became archdeacon of Salisbury.

Life

The second son of George Daubeny, a Bristol merchant, he was baptised 16 August 1745, educated at a private school at Philip's Norton, and sent when 15 years old to Winchester College. Shortly after his admission he fell ill, was incapacitated for more than a year, and never entirely recovered. He became head boy of the school, and at age 18 gained an exhibition at New College, Oxford, where he later became a Fellow.

Coming of age, his father having died, he inherited a fortune, but the state of his health constrained him. In 1770, he went abroad to the German mineral springs. In 1771, he visited St. Petersburg, where, by the influence of the Princess Dashkow, whose acquaintance he had made in Paris, he was introduced at court, and made some study of Greek Catholicism.

On his return to England in 1772, he resided for some months at Oxford to prepare for holy orders, a necessary qualification to his admission to a fellowship at Winchester College. He was ordained deacon in 1773 by the Bishop of Oxford, and priest in the following week by Richard Terrick, bishop of London, and in the same year graduated B.C.L. He obtained his fellowship in 1774, but only held it for two years, when the college living of North Bradley, Wiltshire, was offered him.