>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: Removing from Category:English people of Indian descent in subcat using Cat-a-lot

2021-05-17T19:38:08Z

Removing from Category:English people of Indian descent in subcat using Cat-a-lot

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2013}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2013}}
'''Shapurji Edalji''' (1841/1842 – 23 May 1918) was an Indian-born convert to Anglicanism who was likely the first person from [[South Asia]] to be made the [[vicar]] of an English [[parish (Church of England)|parish]]. His achievements have however been overshadowed by the worldwide fascination with [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]’s campaign to prove his son [[George Edalji|George]] innocent of wounding a pony in 1903. The popularity of [[Julian Barnes]]’s novel ''[[Arthur and George]]'' (2005) has had the same effect.<ref name="odnb">{{Cite ODNB|id=57480|title=Edalji, Shapurji (1841/2–1918), Church of England clergyman and victim of racial harassment|first= Richard |last= Davenport-Hines|authorlink=Richard Davenport-Hines}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Shapurji Edalji was born in [[Bombay]] in 1841 or 1842, the son of Doralji Edalji, a [[Parsi]] merchant. He attended the [[Elphinstone College]], where he was taught by [[Dadabhai Naoroji]] and was a classmate of [[Dinshaw Eduljee Wacha]], who along with Naoroji, himself a former Elphinstone scholar,<ref>Sir D. E. Wacha, ''Shells from the Sands of Bombay: My Recollections and Reminiscences 1860-75'', 1920</ref> became a founder member of the [[Indian National Congress]] in [[Bombay]] in 1885.

In defiance of his family, Edalji converted to Christianity in 1856,<ref>John Wilson, ''The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi from the East: A Sermon Preached on the Occasion of the Baptism of a Parsi Youth'' 31 August, MDCCCLVI, Smith Taylor & Co, Bombay, 2nd ed, 1857</ref> under the influence of [[Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900)|Free Kirk]] missionary [[John Wilson (missionary)|John Wilson]].<ref>George Smith, ''Life of John Wilson'', John Murray, 1878</ref> He was admitted to the Free Kirk College in Mumbai in 1864. He then worked for a year as a missionary among the pre-literate [[Warli]] people before becoming an [[Anglican]]. He published a ''Gujerati and English Dictionary'' (1863), ''The Brahma Samaja'', which was a lecture to the Bombay Dialectic Association (1864), and a ''Grammar of the Gujerati'' Language (1867).<ref name="odnb"/>

== Life in England ==
In 1866 he travelled to [[St Augustine's College, Canterbury]], to train as a missionary. He stayed in England, however, and was eventually ordained in [[Oxford]]. In 1869 he received his first [[curacy]] at [[Burford]]. Afterwards he was curate at [[Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry|Holy Trinity, Oxford]] (1869–70), in the Lancashire parishes of [[Farnworth]] and [[Toxteth]] (1870–72, 1874–5), [[St Levan]], Cornwall (1873–4), and [[Bromley St Leonard]] (1875–6).

On 17 June 1874 he married Charlotte Elizabeth Stuart (1842–1924), daughter of Thompson Stoneham, Vicar of [[Ketley]] in [[Shropshire]]. They had three children: [[George Edalji|George]] (1876–1953), Horace (1879–1952 or 1953) and Maud (1882–1961).<ref name="odnb"/>

In 1876, [[George Selwyn (Bishop of Lichfield)|George Selwyn]], the [[Bishop of Lichfield]], appointed Edalji as Vicar of [[St Mark's Church, Great Wyrley|St Mark's church]], and the parish of [[Great Wyrley]], Staffordshire, where he served until his death forty-two years later. In securing this position Edalji may well have been the first South Asian to become the incumbent of an English parish. [[Collieries]] and [[agriculture]] provided the chief employment in the area. A devoted clergyman, though unflinching and sometimes controversial when it came to defending his fundamental principles, he published his ''Lectures on St Paul's Epistles to the Galatians'' in 1879. He was on the one hand a fine preacher but on the other sometimes a cause of tension in the parish, for example when he engaged in bitter battles over the future of the local Church of England schools.<ref name="odnb"/>

== Case of George Edalji ==
The lives of the five Edalji family members were clouded in 1888 by the appearance of a series of abusive letters in [[Great Wyrley]], most of them directed against the Edalji family itself. There was a further flood of offensive letters between 1892 and 1895, and the family was also subject to a series of hoaxes. When the Staffordshire [[Chief Constable]] indicated that he suspected George of writing the letters Shapurji argued vehemently in his son's defence. This was also his role after October 1903, when George was convicted of wounding a pony, the 8th of the so-called Wyrley outrages of that year; Shapurji campaigned passionately on his son's behalf, and in 1905 produced a booklet, ''The Case of George Edalji'', which provided a detailed analysis of the woeful police and prosecution case against his son.<ref name="odnb"/>

== Last years ==
Edalji's eyesight faded in later years, and by the time of the [[First World War]] he was having difficulty in seeing at all. His daughter had to lead him to the pulpit during church services. He died on 23 May 1918, five weeks after suffering a [[cerebral haemorrhage]], and was buried in the parish churchyard.<ref name="odnb"/>

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.outrage-rogeroldfield.co.uk ''Outrage: The Edalji Five and the Shadow of Sherlock Holmes'']

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edalji, Shapurji}}
[[Category:19th-century Anglican priests]]
[[Category:20th-century Anglican priests]]
[[Category:British people of Parsi descent]]
[[Category:British people of Indian descent]]
[[Category:English people of Parsi descent]]
[[Category:Christian clergy from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to England]]
[[Category:Elphinstone College alumni]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1918 deaths]]
[[Category:Converts to Christianity from Zoroastrianism]]
[[Category:Great Wyrley]]
[[Category:Deaths from intracranial aneurysm]]

Shapurji Edalji - Revision history

>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: Removing from Category:English people of Indian descent in subcat using Cat-a-lot