Charles Trimnell

Charles Trimnell (1663–1723) was an English Anglican bishop. He was a Whig in politics, and known for his attacks on High Church views, writing on the subordination of the Church of England to the state. After the accession of George I of Great Britain in 1714 he was in the royal favour and influential.

Family and education He was the son of another Charles Trimnell (c. 1630–1702), rector of Abbots Ripton, Huntingdonshire. Bishop Trimnell was baptised on 1 May 1663 at Abbots Ripton, and had three brothers: William (Dean of Winchester), Hugh (king's apothecary), and David (Archdeacon of Leicester). He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he matriculated on 26 July 1681, and graduated Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1685 and Master of Arts (Oxford) (MA Oxon) in 1688; he was incorporated at Cambridge in 1695; and proceeded Bachelor of Divinity (BD) and Doctor of Divinity (DD) at Oxford on 4 July 1699. and ordained priest on 18 December 1687 — both times by Thomas Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, at Buckden.

By his wife Henrietta Maria (daughter of William Talbot, Bishop of Durham), he had two sons who died in infancy. She died in 1716, and in 1719 he married Elizabeth (daughter of Sir Edmund Wynne, 2nd Baronet, of Nostell, Yorkshire; and widow of Joseph Taylor of the Temple).

George I He was in high favour on the accession of George I in 1714 being appointed Clerk of the Closet that same year (until his own death). In 1720, he ensured that Nicholas Thurloe, the vicar of St Mary's Church, Brent Eleigh took responsibility for looking after the substantial library donated by Henry Colman to the church of the village of his birth.

He became Bishop of Winchester in 1721; his translation was effective 21 July. He died on 15 August 1723 at Farnham Castle (one of his palaces as Bishop of Winchester), and was buried at Winchester Cathedral on 27 August 1723.