William Rowe Lyall (11 February 1788 – 17 February 1857) was an English churchman,[1]Dean of Canterbury from 1845 to 1857.[2]
Life
He was born in
Stepney, Middlesex, the fifth son of John Lyall and Jane Comyn.[3] He was educated at
Trinity College, Cambridge (M.A. 1816).[4] In 1817 he married Catherine Brandreth (1792–1863), daughter of Dr. Brandreth of Liverpool.[5]
Lyall became
Archdeacon of Colchester (1824–1842),[12]Archdeacon of Maidstone (1842–1845),[13] simultaneously Canon of the Ninth Prebend,
Canterbury Cathedral (1841–1845),[14] and finally
Dean of Canterbury (1845[15]–1857).[16] He died at Canterbury, Kent. There is a monumental tomb in the north aisle of the nave at Canterbury, said to be designed after a model by the sculptor
John Birnie Philip (1824–1875),[17] but his remains are in fact buried at the parish church of St Michael in the nearby village of Harbledown, alongside his wife's.[18]
Literary works
He wrote a number of dissertations on religious topics, and was a regular contributor to the Quarterly Review, albeit anonymously. His major published work was Propædia Prophetica (Preparation of Prophesy), in 1840.[19] It was re-published in 1854 and again posthumously in 1885, this time with a preface by his nephew George C. Pearson.[20] He also contributed to the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, an ambitious enterprise to disseminate knowledge: he was invited to write sections of the History Division, in particular: History of Greece, Macedonia and Syria.[21] Co-authors of this work were
Jacob Henry Brooke Mountain,
George Cecil Renouard and
Michael Russell.[22]
^Katharine Eustace, 'The Post-Reformation Monuments', in: A History of Canterbury Cathedral, ed. P. Collinson, N. Ramsay, M. Sparks, (OUP: 1995, revised edition 2002) p.539–40; illustration, plate 154.
^"Life of the Right Hon. Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall, P. C., K. C. B., G. C. I. E., D. C. L., LL. D" Durand, M p20 William Edinburgh; Blackwood and Sons; 1913