The '
Bishop of
Edinburgh' is the
Ordinary of the
Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Edinburgh.
The
see was founded in 1633 by King
Charles I. William Forbes was consecrated in
St. Giles' Cathedral as its first bishop on
23 January 1634 though he died later that year. The General Assembly of 1638 deposed Bishop David Lindsay and all the other bishops, so the next, George Wishart, was consecrated in 1662 after the
Restoration. In 1690 it was Bishop Alexander Rose (1687-1720) whose unwelcome reply to
King William III led to the
disestablishment of the Scottish Episcopalians as
Jacobite sympathisers, and it was he who led his congregation from St. Giles to a former wool store as their meeting house, on the site now occupied by
Old Saint Paul's Church.
After the repeal of the
penal laws in 1792 and the reuniting of Episcopal and ‘Qualified’ congregations, the Diocese grew under the leadership of Bishops Daniel Sandford, James Walker, C.H. Terrot and Henry Cotterill. The high point of the 19th Century was the consecration of
St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1879.
The current Bishop is the Rt Rev Brian Smith, who signs himself 'Brian Edenburgen.'
Bishops
★ 1634
William Forbes
★ 1634
David Lindsay
★ 1662
George Wishart
★ 1672
Alexander Young
★ 1679
John Paterson
★ 1687
Alexander Rose
★ 1720
John Fullarton
★ 1727
Arthur Millar
★ 1727
Andrew Lumsden
★ 1733
David Freebairn
★ (1739-76) See Vacant
★ 1776
William Falconer
★
1787-
1805:
William Abernethy Drummond (c.1719-1809)
★
1806-
1830:
Daniel Sandford (1766-1830)
★
1830-
1841:
James Walker
★
1841-
1872:
Charles Hugh Terrot (1790-1872)
★
1872-
1886:
Henry Cotterill
★
1886-
1910:
John Dowden (1840-1910)
★
1910-
1929: Rt Rev
George Henry Somerset Walpole (1854-1929)
★
1929-
1939: Rt Rev
Harry Seymour Reid (d. 1943)
★
1939-
1946: Rt Rev
Ernest Denny Logie Danson (1880-1946)
★
1947-
1961: Rt Rev
Kenneth Charles Harman Warner (1891-1983)
★
1961-
1975: Rt Rev
Kenneth Moir Carey (1908-1979)
★
1975-
1985: Rt Rev
Alastair Iain Macdonald Haggart (1915-1998)
★
1986-
2000: Rt Rev
Richard Holloway (b.1933)
★
2001-present : Rt Rev
Brian Arthur Smith
See also
★
Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh for the Catholic bishops.
External links
★
Diocese of Edinburgh