‘A good soul and a true friend’: Benjamin Hoadly’s ordination of Osborne Atterbury, 1744

This article examines Bishop Benjamin Hoadly’s decision in 1744 to ordain the son of his enemy and political opponent Bishop Francis Atterbury. Osborne Atterbury was the black sheep of the Atterbury family having left Oxford without a degree and lived as a seaman before deciding to enter the Church. Hoadly’s decision to ordain him was, it is suggested here, an example of ‘transferred nepotism’ which was the idea that churchmen had a duty to support and maintain the sons of other clergy, especially when they entered the Church. So the demands of professional duty to the son of a brother bishop outweighed the personal animosity which had existed between them.