Edward Henry Bickersteth (25 January 1825 – 16 May 1906) was a bishop in the Church of England and he held the office of Bishop of Exeter between 1885 and 1900.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Bickersteth undertook a number of extended overseas mission tours in support of the work of the Church Mission Society and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1880 he travelled to India and the Middle East. 1891 he travelled to Japan on a visit to the mission churches of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai, reuniting with his eldest son Edward, then serving as the first Bishop of South Tokyo. Arriving in Yokohama on 23 September 1891,[4] the travel journals of his daughter, Mary Jane Bickersteth,[5] include detailed descriptions of the Anglican church's mission work in Japan as well as visits to sites such as the Shrines and Temples of Nikkō and the experience of surviving the strong Mino–Owari earthquake at Osaka on 28 October 1891.[6]
Bickersteth edited hymnals and was an accomplished poet. Beginning with a volume of poems in 1849, he published extensively. His Hymnal Companion called forth from Dr. Julian, editor of A Dictionary of Hymnology, these high words of praise: "Of its kind and from its theological standpoint, as an evangelical hymn book, it is in poetic grace, literary excellence, and lyric beauty, the finest collection in the Anglican Church;" and the author's contributions to this volume are pronounced "very beautiful and of much value." His most popular hymn was "Peace, Perfect Peace".[7]
Family
Bickersteth married twice. His first marriage was in February 1848 to his cousin Rosa, daughter of Sir Samuel Bignold of Norwich; she died in 1873, having borne him six sons and ten daughters. Almost 20 years later, in 1876, he married his cousin Ellen Susanna, daughter of Robert Bickersteth of Liverpool, who survived him without issue.[8]
^Aglionby, Francis Keys (1907). The Life of Edward Henry Bickersteth DD, Bishop and Poet. Wycliffe College Library, Trinity College, Toronto: Longmans Green and Co, London. p. 156.
^Bickersteth, Mary Jane (1893). Japan as We Saw It. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company.
^Aglionby, The Life of Edward Henry Bickersteth DD, p.160.