AT'TERBURY, FRANCIS (1662-1732). Bishop of Rochester. He was born at Middleton Keynes, near Bedford, England, 6. 1662, and educated at Westminster School, London, from which, in 1680, he passed to Christ Church, Oxford. In 1687 he gave proof of that ready controversial talent which distinguished him through life, in a reply to a pseudonymous attack on Protestantism by Obadiah Walker, .;\laster of University College, under the name Abraham Woodhead, and in the same year received holy orders. In London his rhetorical powers soon WOII him reputation. He became lecturer of Saint Bride's (1691), a royal chap lain, and minister of 11ridewell. Iu 1698 a tem porary sensation was created in the learned world by the appearance of the Hon. Charles Boyle's Examination of Dr. Bentley's Disserta tions on the Epistles of Phalaris and the Fables of ‘Esop, in which he defended the Epistles, though all the world now knows that they are forgeries. This clever but shallow and malicious performance was in reality composed chiefly by Atterbury, who had been the young nobleman's tutor at Christ Church. In 1700 lie distinguished himself in a controversy with Dr. Wake and others regarding the powers and privileges of convocations. Atterbury's zealous and caustic defense of the ecclesiastical against the civil authority procured him the thanks of the lower home of Convocation and the degree of D.D. from Oxford (1701) ; also the archdeaconry of Taun ton. In 1701 he was promoted to the deanery of Carlisle, on which occasion lie subjected himself to just obloquy by attempting to procure an alteration in the date of his predecessor's resig nation, which happened to interpose a temporary obstacle to his appointment. In 1707 he was made a canon of Exeter; in 1709, preacher at the Rolls Chapel ; in 1710 lie was chosen pro locutor to the lower house of Convocation, and in the same year lie had the chief hand, according to the common belief, in drawing up the famous defense of Dr. Sacheverell ; in 1712 he became
Dean of Christ Church, where, however, his turbulent and combative spirit had meanwhile involved him in so many controversies that there was no peace until he was removed; in 1713 he was made Bishop of Rochester and Dean of West minster. It was supposed—not unreasonably— that Atterbury aspired to the primacy; but the death of Queen Anne extinguished his hopes in that direction. His known character and .Jaco bite leanings made him no favorite with George 1. In 1715 he refused to sign the bishops' declara tion of fidelity, and some of the most violent protests of the peers against the Government measures proceeded from his reckless pen. His deep complicity in a succession of plots for the restoration of the Stuarts brought down upon him at length the charge of treason, and in Au gust, 1722, he was committed to the Tower. A bill of pains and penalties was brought into the ]louse of Commons, and passed in the Lords by a majority of 83 to 43. Atterbury, who had de fended himself with great ability, was deprived of all his ecclesiastical offices, incapacitated from holding any civil or spiritual office in the King's dominions, and condemned to perpetual banish ment. The people generally considered him a martyr. In June, 1723, lie quitted England for France, and after a short stay at Brussels, finally settled at Paris, where lie died February 15, 1732. In his exile he maintained a constant correspondence with his friends, and took an active part in the abortive conspiracies of the Jacobites. His fame as a writer is founded on his sermons, and his letters to Pope, Swift. and others; as a letter-writer, indeed, he has seldom been surpassed. Consult his Memoirs and Cor respondence, edited by F. Williams (London, 1869).