>JJMC89 bot III at 01:55, 23 June 2021

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{{distinguish|text=the Australian writer [[Henry Melville]]}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
[[File:Henry Melvill, 1789-1871 LCCN2002706207.jpg|thumb|Henry Melvill, 1789-1871]]
Rev. '''Henry Melvill''' (14 September 1798 – 9 February 1871) was a British priest in the [[Church of England]], and principal of the [[East India Company College]] from 1844 to 1858. He afterwards served as Canon of [[St Paul's Cathedral]].<ref name="cambridge">{{cite book |title=Admissions to Peterhouse Or S. Peter's College in the University of Cambridge |date=1912 |publisher=University Press |page=412 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GsagAAAAMAAJ&q=melvill&pg=PA412 |access-date=31 January 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref>''Men and Events of My Time in India'' by Sir Richard Temple, John Murray, London, 1882 p 18 [https://books.google.com/books?id=cHsBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA18 accessed 9 Oct 2007]</ref>

==Early years==
Melvill was the fifth son of [[Philip Melvill]] (1762–1811), an officer in the army, who was [[lieutenant-governor]] of [[Pendennis Castle]] from 1797 till 1811, by his wife Elizabeth Carey (1770–1844), daughter of Peter Dobrée of Beauregard, [[Guernsey]]. He was born at the castle in 1798.<ref name="cambridge"/> His elder brother was Sir [[James Cosmo Melvill]]; [[Philip Melvill (East India Company officer)|Philip Melvill]] and Sir [[Peter Melvill]] were his younger brothers. He was born in Pendennis Castle, [[Cornwall]], on 14 September 1798 and became a sizar of [[St. John's College, Cambridge]], in October 1817. After migrating to [[Peterhouse, Cambridge|Peterhouse]], he passed as [[second wrangler]] and won the [[Smith's Prize]] in 1821, and was a fellow and tutor of his college from 1822 to 1832. He graduated B.A. 1821, M.A. 1824, and B.D. 1836.<ref>{{acad|id=MLVL817H|name=Melvill, Henry}}</ref>

==Life as a priest==
From 1829 to 1843 he served as incumbent of Camden Chapel, Camberwell, London; was appointed by the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]] chaplain to the [[Tower of London]] in 1840. He was principal of the [[East India Company College]], Haileybury, from 1844 until the college was closed in January 1858; Golden lecturer at St. Margaret's, Lothbury, 1850–1856; one of the chaplains to [[Queen Victoria]], 13 June 1853; canon residentiary of St. Paul's, 21 April 1856; and rector of Barnes, Surrey, 1863–71. Melvill for many years had the reputation of being "the most popular preacher in London", and one of the greatest rhetoricians of his time. First at Camden Chapel, then at St. Margaret's, and later on at St. Paul's, large crowds of people attended his ministrations. His sermon generally occupied three-quarters of an hour, but such was the rapidity of his utterance that he spoke as much in that time as an ordinary preacher would have done in an hour. His delivery was earnest and animated without distinctive gesticulation; his voice was clear and flexible; while his emphatic pronunciation and his hurried manner of speaking impressed the hearers with a conviction of his sincerity. But his sermons lacked simplicity and directness of style, and his ornate phraseology, his happy analogies, smoothly [[balanced sentence]]s, appealed more directly to the literary than to the spiritual sense. His views were [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]].

He died at the residentiary house, Amen Corner, London, 9 February 1871, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral on 15 February.<ref>"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" [[William Sinclair (Archdeacon of London)|Sinclair, W.]] p. 465: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.</ref> He had married Margaret Alice, daughter of Peter Dobree of Beauregard, Guernsey. She died 18 April 1878, aged 73, leaving a daughter Edith, who married Clement Alexander Midleton.

==Selected works==
* ''Sermons, 1833–8'' 2 vols., 6th edit. 1870.
* ''Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge'' to which are added two sermons preached in Great St. Mary's, 1836, five editions.
* ''Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge,'' 1837, five editions.
* ''Four Sermons preached before the University of Cambridge'' 1839, three editions.
* ''Sermons preached at Cambridge'' 1840.
* ''Sermons on certain of the less prominent Facts and References in Sacred Story'' 1843–5, 2 vols., new edit. 1872.
* ''Sermons preached on Public Occasions'' 1846.
* ''The Preacher in Print'', ''The Golden Lectures'', ''Forty-eight Sermons delivered at St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury'' 1850 (published without Melvill's sanction).
* ''Thoughts appropriate to the Season and the Days: Lectures delivered at St. Margaret's, Lothbury'' 1851.
* ''A Selection from the Lectures delivered at St. Margaret's, Lothbury'' 1853.
* ''The Golden Lectures for the Years 1850 to 1855 inclusive'' 1856, 6 vols.
* ''Selections from the Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Barnes, and in the Cathedral of St. Paul's'' 1872, 2 vols.

==References==
{{reflist}}
;Attribution
*{{DNB|wstitle=Melvill, Henry}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Melvill, Henry}}
[[Category:1798 births]]
[[Category:1871 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Falmouth, Cornwall]]
[[Category:19th-century English Anglican priests]]
[[Category:Burials at St Paul's Cathedral]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Second Wranglers]]
[[Category:British East India Company people]]
[[Category:Melvill family|Henry]]

Henry Melvill - Revision history

>JJMC89 bot III at 01:55, 23 June 2021