Upon the accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, Dr. Atterbury was appointed one of her Majesty’s Chaplains in Ordinary; and in 1704 was advanced to the Deanery of Carlisle. In 1713, at the recommendation of Lord Chancellor Harcourt, the Queen promoted him to the Bishopric of Rochester.
In 1722, Dr. Atterbury, on suspicion of being concerned in a plot in favour of the Pretender, was apprehended and committed to the Tower. Shortly afterwards he was condemned to perpetual exile. Just before this, a large fine dropped to him as Dean of Westminster, but he could have no right to receive it without the seal being set to it in full chapter. Sir Robert Walpole earnestly enquired whether a Chapter could not be held in the Tower, that he might receive the benefit of the fine. A chapter was accordingly there held, and the Bishop received a £1000 for his share. This anecdote, which is well authenticated, does great credit to the liberality of Walpole.
Dr. Atterbury, in his private character, was most amiable and exemplary; as a preacher he was eloquent, and as a writer, his sermons, letters and other tracts, proved most decidedly that he possessed piety, genius, and erudition. On the 18th of June, 1723, having the day before taken leave of his friends, this eminent prelate embarked on board the Aldborough man-of-war, and landed on the Friday following at Calais.
A prelate for wit, and for eloquence fam’d,
Apollo soon miss’d, and he need not be nam’d;
Since amidst a whole bench, of which some are so bright,
No one of them shines so learn’d and polite.—Sheffield, 1719.
The celebrated Dean Swift came to Chelsea in the year 1711, and took up his residence facing Dr. Atterbury’s house in Church Street.
Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick, in Dublin, an illustrious poet, and political and satirical writer, was born in Dublin in 1667, and died in 1745. Of a life so various and so full of business as Swift’s, we know not what part we could select consistent with the limits of this work that would not excite rather than gratify curiosity.
The company of Swift was courted by persons of the first rank in life and literature; the following peculiarities may be related:—He made to himself a rule never to speak more than a minute at a time, and to wait for others to take up the conversation. He was singularly happy in punning; and used to say, that none despised that talent but those who were without it. He also greatly excelled in telling a story; but, in the latter part of his life, used to tell the same rather to often. Though to strangers he appeared churlish, and austere to his servants, it is said he was a kind and generous master; he was also very charitable to the poor.
Swift has been very minute and circumstantial in describing the particulars relative to his residence here, and his acquaintance with Dr. Atterbury. I will select one instance of it:—“I got here,” says he, “with Patrick and my portmanteau for sixpence, and pay six shillings a week for one silly room, with confounded coarse sheets. I lodge just over against Dr. Atterbury’s house; and yet, perhaps, I shall not like the place the better for that.”
Thomas Shadwell, Esq., Poet Laureat, another resident of Church Street, was born at Stanton Hall, Norfolk, and received his education at Bury School, and Caius College, Cambridge. His father, who held a place of profit and distinction in the law in Ireland, bestowed the learning and exercises of a gentleman upon him. Notwithstanding that, Lord Rochester has said,
“None seem to touch true Comedy
But hasty Shadwell and slow Wycherlye,”