Compton, Henry, Bishop of London (1632 -1713)

Henry Compton was the sixth and youngest, but after 1661 the fourth surviving son of Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton and Mary, daughter of Sir Francis Beaumont of Coleorton in Leicestershire. The fourth son, Spencer, had died in 1659, and the second son, Charles, in November 1661. Henry Compton was educated at Uppingham Grammar School and Queen’s College Oxford, where he was admitted as a nobleman 12 December 1654. He spent much of the Commonwealth period abroad, and after the Restoration was commissioned as a Cornet in the Royal Troop of Horse Guards 16 February 1661. In November of the same year he was made a lieutenant and dispatched to Tangiers. In 1663 he left the Army and travelled on the Continent. In 1666 he returned to England and entered Christ Church Oxford as a Canon Commoner, incorporated M.A. 7 July 1666, and was ordained. The next year the King made him Master of St. Cross Hospital, Winchester. On 29 April 1669 he was made a Canon of Christ Church, received his B.D. in May, and D.D. in June. He became Bishop of Oxford in November 1674, Dean of the Chapel Royal in July 1675, and Bishop of London in December 1675. A shrewd anti-Catholic, he was suspended by James II in September 1686, but continued to guide his clergy behind the scenes. In 1688 he signed the invitation to William and Mary. He died in Fulham 7 July 1713. Both Duff and Clements believed this was the stamp of Sir Spencer Compton, the fourth son, but some of the books that have come to light since their time were published after his death.