John Buckner (bishop)

John Buckner was an Anglican clergyman who served in the Church of England as the Bishop of Chichester from 1797 to 1824.

Early life

Buckner was born at Goodwood House, Sussex, and baptised at Boxgrove on 12 June 1734. He was the elder son of Richard Buckner, steward to Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, and his wife Mary Saunders. His younger brother Charles Buckner became an Admiral in the Royal Navy.
Bishop Buckner's 1824 obituary in the London Magazine noted that he and his brother Charles had "owed their advancement in life" to a close relationship with the Dukes of Richmond. Indeed, it was speculated in a 2011 article that their father Richard might have been an illegitimate son of the 1st Duke of Richmond, himself an illegitimate son of King Charles II. Traditional sources though hold that Richard Buckner was an immigrant from Westphalia.
The Duke of Richmond nominated John Buckner to a foundation scholarship at Charterhouse School at the age of 12, giving him access to a free education. He matriculated at Clare College, Cambridge in 1751, graduating B.A. 1755, M.A. 1765; he additionally received a Lambeth LL.D. in 1787. He was ordained a deacon in 1756 and a priest in 1758.

He held the following positions:

Buckner had a house in Wigmore Street in London. Granted Arms jointly with his brother in 1804. The family vault is in the south transept of the cathedral, however this is believed to have been damaged and/or obscured when the cathedral tower fell down early in the 19th century. There are portraits of the bishop at Goodwood, in the Rector's Vestry of St Giles-in-the-Fields and in the Bishop's Palace, Chichester.
It is recorded that Bishop Buckner, with the aid of a very considerable sum of money from his predecessor's estate, "applied a liberal addition of his own monies to render the house fit for episcopal residence; and his improvements were certainly dictated by judgement and taste."
He was nominated Bishop of the Diocese of Chichester by King George III on 2 October, received Congé d'élire and letter missive on 11 October, elected on 27 October, and Royal assent on 10 November 1797. He was consecrated on 4 March and enthroned at Chichester Cathedral on 28 March 1798. He died in office on 1 May 1824.

On 6 December 1768 at Portsmouth, Hampshire, he married Elizabeth Heron, daughter of John Vining Heron and his wife Frances Leake. The two did not have any children.