ATTERBURY, FRANCIS (1662—I 73 2 ), English man of letters, politician and bishop, was born at Milton, Bucks, the son of a clergyman. Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, he became a tutor of his college. He took holy orders in 1687, and was appointed one of the royal chaplains, but most of his time was spent in Oxford, where he was the chief adviser of Dean Aldrich under whom Christ Church had become a centre of Toryism. He stood behind Charles Boyle in his attack on Richard Bentley, and in the Battle of the Books Swift calls him the Apollo who directed the fight. In the high and low church controversy he was a witty and audacious champion of the high church clergy against what they regarded as the oligarchy of Erastian prelates. He was rewarded by the archdeaconry of Totnes, a prebend in Exeter Cathedral, and, after Queen Anne's accession, the deanery of Carlisle. In 1710 the prosecution of Sacheverell gave Atterbury another opportunity for the use of his powers of sarcasm and invective. He helped to frame the brilliant speech which the accused delivered at the bar of the House of Lords. With the fall of the Whigs his triumph came.
As prolocutor of the lower house of convocation, he drew up in 1711 the famous Representation of the State of Religion, and in August of that year Queen Anne, who had come to rely on Atter bury for advice in ecclesiastical matters, appointed him dean of Christ Church. He was not a good college administrator, and in 1713 was removed from Oxford to be bishop of Rochester.
Probably Atterbury was one of those who hoped to arrange matters so that at Queen Anne's death the act of succession could be easily set aside in favour of James Stuart, but on the accession of George I. he took the oath of allegiance and sought to ingrati ate himself with the new court, though without success. He then violently opposed the new Government by his brilliant speeches in the House, and anonymously by pamphlets against the Hano verians. When the rebellion of 1715 broke out in favour of the Pretender he refused to sign the address in which the bishops of the Province of Canterbury declared their attachment to the royal house, and in 1717 he began to correspond directly with the Pretender.
Atterbury was implicated in a plot in 1721 for the restoration of the Stuarts, and spent some months in the Tower in 1722. The evidence against him was insufficient for legal conviction, and recourse was had to a special bill in Parliament by which he was deprived of his ecclesiastical dignities and banished for life. For some years he was principal adviser to James, but, finding that his counsels were disregarded, he retired to Montpelier. For a brief period before his death on Feb. 22 1732, he was again in the Pretender's service. His remains were brought to England and secretly buried in Westminster Abbey.
In private life Atterbury was gentle and forbearing, and showed none of the acerbity and violence of the pamphleteer. Between him and his daughter, Mrs. Morice, there was tender affection; when he was ill in France she went over at the risk of her life to see him, and died immediately on her arrival. He was a close friend of Addison, and was on excellent terms with Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot and Gay.