John Bampton

John Bampton (16902 June 1751) was an English churchman who founded the Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford.

Biography Bampton's father was Jasper Bampton of Salisbury. In 1705 at age 16 he was admitted to Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1709, M.A. in 1712.

Will establishing lectures He is now remembered chiefly because of the contents of his will, which directs that eight lectures shall be delivered annually at Oxford in the University Church on as many Sunday mornings in full term, "between the commencement of the last month in Lent term and the end of the third week in Act term, upon either of the following subjects: to confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics; upon the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures; upon the authority of the writings of the primitive fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church; upon the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; upon the divinity of the Holy Ghost; upon the articles of the Christian faith as comprehended in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds."

The bequest did not take effect until 1779, when the first lecturer was chosen.

Background to the benefaction Bampton owned Nunton Farm, in southern Wiltshire near his parish, comprising land in Nunton, Downton, and Britford. Jacob Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone wished to purchase it for his estate at Longford Castle which is just north-east of Nunton. Bampton was unwilling to sell, a dispute arose, and to put the land beyond Folkestone's reach, Bampton left it to the University of Oxford, which took possession around 1778 after his wife had died. Eventually Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Radnor, Folkestone's grandson, made an exchange in 1805 with the university of Nunton Farm for the Tinkersole estate at Wing, Buckinghamshire, backed by a local act of Parliament, the (45 Geo. 3. c. lxxxii). The first Sarum lecturer was appointed for 1954; the lectureship was discontinued in 1995. The subsequent annual series of Sarum Theological Lectures are unconnected, being organised by Sarum College and taking place in Salisbury Cathedral.

Sarum Lecturers at Oxford

1954 C. H. Dodd, Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel 1958 Fernando Capelle 1960 A. N. Sherwin-White, Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament 1964 David Knowles, From Pachomius to Ignatius: A Study in the Constitutional History of the Religious Orders 1966 Basil Edward Butler, The Theology of Vatican II 1968 Alec Vidler, A Variety of Catholic Modernists 1971 H. H. Price, Essays in the Philosophy of Religion 1972 Edward Yarnold, Second Gift: Study of Grace 1976 John S. Donne, The Reasons of the Heart 1980 Schubert Ogden, The Point of Christology 1982 Henry Chadwick on St Augustine of Hippo 1986 Gordon D. Kaufman 1990 Raymond Plant, published in Politics, Theology and History 1992 Basil Mitchell, Faith and Criticism 1995–6 David Martin, published as Does Christianity Cause War?