William Vincent

William Vincent (2 November 1739 – 21 December 1815) was Dean of Westminster from 1802 to 1815.

Biography Vincent born on 2 November 1739 in Limehouse Street Ward, London, was the fifth surviving son of Giles Vincent, packer and Portugal merchant, by Sarah (Holloway).

Theological career William was admitted at Westminster School as a 'town boy' in 1747; he became a king's scholar in 1753, and in 1757 was elected to Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduating as BA in 1761, he returned to Westminster as usher. He became second master in June 1771, and in the same year was made chaplain in ordinary to the king. He graduated MA in 1764 and DD in 1776, and two years later received the vicarage of Longdon, Wiltshire, which, however, he exchanged within six months for the rectory of All Hallows, Thames Street. In 1784 he became sub-almoner to the king. He shared the tory views of his family, and in 1780 published anonymously a Letter in reply to a sermon preached at Cambridge by Richard Watson. A sermon preached by him in 1792 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, for the benefit of the greycoat charity, attracted attention, and when reprinted in the following year by the Patriotic Association against republicans and levellers, twenty thousand copies were sold.

In 1805 Vincent obtained the rectory of St John's, Westminster, and resigned that of All Hallows to his son. In 1807 he exchanged St John's for the rectory of Islip, Oxfordshire, where he made his country residence. He had been appointed president of Sion College in 1798, and acted as prolocutor of the lower house of convocation in 1802, 1806, and 1807.

The fire which broke out in the roof of the lantern of Westminster Abbey on 9 July 1803 necessitated repairs to the fabric. They were all paid for by the dean and chapter; but in 1805 Vincent addressed a letter to Pitt praying for a national grant for the restoration of the Henry VII Chapel. Fourteen annual grants, beginning from 1807, were received, and the work proceeded under the direction of Thomas Gayfere and Benjamin Wyatt. The restoration was not completed till 1822. The manner in which it was carried out, especially the interference with the tomb of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, to make way for the new Addison monument, was severely criticised in the Gentleman's Magazine by John Carter, the architect. Vincent replied by the jeux d'esprit Woodstock's Ghost and Addison's Ghost, satirical verses directed against Carter and William Capon, the scene-painter. He also directed the restoration of the great rose or marigold window; and caused the enormous monuments of Captains Harvey, Hutt, and Montagu (killed in Admiral Howe's victory of the "Glorious First of June" 1794) to be removed from between the pillars of the nave to their present positions. Pitt and Charles James Fox were buried in the abbey in 1806, and the Duc de Montpensier (brother of Louis-Philippe) in the Henry VII Chapel in the following year. Minute accounts of the repairs executed at the abbey and of the chapter business while he was dean are given in a manuscript notebook of Vincent's, which is still preserved at the deanery. The book also contains an account by him of the 16th and 17th-century chapter-books, and an analysis and criticism of Flete's manuscript Chronicle of the Abbey.

William St Andrew, after the Dean's death, published a book of his sermons, "Sermons on Faith, Doctrines and Public Duties," in 1817, followed by a second volume in 1836.

George Giles Vincent paid tribute to him as "one of the best of parents, and best of men... In practice, he was most conscientious in performance of his clerical duties, but he despised both the parade and the affectation of piety."

Death and appreciation

Vincent died at Islip on 21 December 1815, and was buried in St Benedict's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, on 29 December 1815. His monument, between those of South and Busby, bears a Latin inscription composed by himself. In 1771 he married Hannah, fourth daughter of George Wyatt, chief clerk of the vote office, House of Commons. She died on 17 February 1807, leaving children. There is a mural tablet to her with an inscription by her husband in the north transept of the abbey.

William Beloe thought Vincent one of the soundest scholars in Europe, an opinion corroborated by Thomas James Mathias in Pursuits of Literature (third dialogue). The dramatist Richard Cumberland also speaks of him in high terms in his Memoirs. The poet William Cowper made an English translation of some Latin verses written by Vincent, when second master at Westminster, on his predecessor Pierson Lloyd. A French version of Vincent's great work on ancient navigation was made under the sanction of Napoleon by M. Billecoq; and in Germany, where his works were well known, his scholarship was recognised by a degree from Göttingen in 1814. "Next to Rennell, and beyond him in some respects," says Sir Clements Markham, "Vincent was the greatest comparative geographer of his time."