William Henry Bliss

William Henry Bliss (26 April 1835 – 8 March 1909 ) was an English scholar and Anglican convert to Catholicism.

Early life and education Bliss was born in Newton St Loe, Bath, Somerset. He was the son of Rev. William Bliss and Jane Monck (born Jane Bridges). Bliss was the grandson of Dr John Bliss M.D., a physician who specialised in the treatment of gout. The family owned a tweed mill (Bliss Tweed Mill) at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

He was educated at Winchester from 1847 to 1852. He then went up to Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1859 (receiving his M.A. in 1863. In 1868 he was awarded a BCL.

In 1854, he edited The Parson.

On 4 May 1859 he married Mary Jane Wray, daughter of Rev. Cyril Wray of St. Martin's, Liverpool. Over twenty years they were to have eleven children.

Clergyman Bliss had a stammer. He therefore spent more than the usual time as a deacon. He was finally ordained by the Church of England in 1865. He then secured the position of Keeper of Periodicals at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Work in the Vatican In 1877 the Public Record Office asked Bliss to go to Rome to do research in the Vatican Archives on its behalf. He won them over and by 1886 he was the English Tutor to Victor Emmanuel, heir to the Italian crown. He enjoyed cordial relations with the Italian Royal family.

In the Vatican Bliss produced a series called the Calendar of The Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to British Isles Volumes I and II. These were entirely Bliss's work. He edited volumes III, IV, and V with collaborators.

Other work Bliss also studied the transcripts of manuscripts in Milan and Stockholm. His work from these cities is still available in the Public Record Office. Overall, his output is an important source of material for mediaeval historians.

Bliss is buried in Rome. His papers are kept at Downside Abbey.

Publications 1867 The Canons of the First Four General Councils 1894/95 Calendar of The Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to British Isles Volumes I and II 1896 Calendars of Petitions to the Pope Volume I, 1342–1419 1897 Calendar of The Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to British Isles Volume III (with C. Johnson). 1902 Calendar of The Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to British Isles Volume IV (with Jesse Alfred Twemlow) 1904 Calendar of The Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to British Isles Volume V (with J. A. Twemlow) 1913 Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Existing in the Archives Collections in Milan, Volume I 1385–1618