Renn Dickson Hampden was, twice in his career, vilified for his perceived unorthodoxy. At Oxford, he was one of the Noetic theologians, insisting that scriptural revelation was rightly supplemented by evidence of divine dispensation in the natural world – and both were properly understood in the context of human reason. In 1834 he became professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford and in 1836 was nominated by Melbourne as Regius Professor. This caused a storm of protest, not least from Pusey and other Oxford dons, who opposed his liberal views on the admission of dissenters to the University. The controversy marked the emergence of parties within the Church of England, separating high-churchmen from liberal Anglicans. In 1847, Lord John Russell offered Hampden the see of Hereford. Again, there was much protest and thirteen bishops remonstrated with the prime minister. At Hampden’s election as bishop, twelve prebendaries absented themselves and Dean John Merewether voted against the new appointment. When he arrived at Hereford, Hampden threw himself into his diocesan duties; he founded the Diocesan Education Society in 1849 and encouraged church building, also securing the reopening of the cathedral after its restoration.
Hampden was born in Barbados, the son of Renn Hampden, a colonel of militia, and Frances Raven. Records also show that he was awarded compensation associated with the ownership of one enslaved person in Barbados following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. His connections to Barbados and to institutions with links to West Indian merchants formed part of the wider colonial context in which he lived and worked.
As he grew older, his orthodoxy became more pronounced and he was a critic of the liberal-minded book Essays and Reviews following its publication in 1861. Hampden died in London on 23 April 1868 and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.
