SHIPLEY, WILLIAM DAVIES (1745-1826), cleric

Born at Midgeham, Berkshire, 5 October 1745, son of Jonathan Shipley (below) and Anna Maria his wife. He was educated at Westminster and Winchester, and matriculated 21 December 1763 at Christ Church, Oxford, graduating B.A. in 1769 and M.A. in 1771. He was ordained deacon 11 March 1770 by bishop Yonge of Norwich, and priest by his father 18 March; one day later he was appointed vicar of Ysgeifiog, Flintshire. His subsequent preferments included the vicariate of Wrexham (6 February 1771), the sinecure rectory of Llangwm (11 April 1772), which he exchanged for Corwen (8 January 1774) and Llanarmon-yn-Iâl (10 January 1782), the chancellorship of the diocese (19 November 1773), and the deanery (27 May 1774). These he held till his death at Botryddan, near Rhuddlan, Flintshire, on 7 May 1826. He was buried at Rhuddlan, and a life-size statue of him, with a laudatory inscription, stands in the chapter-house of St Asaph cathedral. He published a tract written by his brother-in-law, Sir William Jones, on the principles of government, and after a protracted trial on a charge of seditious libel was ultimately discharged.

His father,

JONATHAN (1714 - 1788),

son of Jonathan Shipley of Leeds and Martha his wife, was born at Twyford, and educated at Reading and S. John's College and Christ Church, Oxford. He took his B.A. in 1735 and his M.A. in 1738, and after holding various ecclesiastical preferments became bishop of Llandaff early in 1769, being translated to S. Asaph in the same year. He used to reside in his diocese for about a month annually.

Author

• Thomas Iorwerth Ellis, (1899 - 1970)

Sources

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• H. B. Thomas, A History of the Diocese of St. Asaph (1874), i, 238, 255, 323, ii, 84, 149, 166, 213
• St Asaph episcopal registers, N.L.W.
• A. G. Edwards, Memories (London 1927), 63-5

Published date: 1959

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