Editing Churchill Babington

{{Short description|English scholar, archaeologist and naturalist (1821–1889)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
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| name              = Churchill Babington
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| birth_place       =  [[Rothley]] Temple, Leicestershire
| death_date        = {{death date and age |1889|01|12 |1821|03|11 | df = yes}} 
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| fields            = Classical scholar, archaeologist and naturalist
| workplaces        = [[Horningsea]], near Cambridge; [[Cockfield, Suffolk]]; Cambridge
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'''Churchill Babington''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|æ|b|ɪ|ŋ|t|ən}}; 11 March 1821{{snd}}12 January 1889) was an [[English people|English]] [[classics|classical scholar]], [[archaeology|archaeologist]] and [[natural history|naturalist]]. He served as Rector of [[Cockfield, Suffolk]]. He was a cousin of [[Cardale Babington]].

== Life ==
He was born at [[Rothley]] Temple, in [[Leicestershire]], the only son of Matthew Drake Babington. He was a scion of the [[Babington family]].<ref name="CG obit">{{cite journal |last1=C. G. |title=Obituary of the late Churchill Babington, D.D., F.L.S.” |journal=Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History |date=1891 |volume=VII |issue=Part 3 |url=http://suffolkinstitute.pdfsrv.co.uk/customers/Suffolk%20Institute/2014/01/10/Volume%20VII%20Part%203%20(1891)_Obituary%20notice%20of%20late%20C%20Babington%20D.D%20F.L.S%20F%20Hasslewood_xix%20to%20xxvi.pdf}}</ref>  He was first educated by his father, and then studied under [[Charles Wycliffe Goodwin]], the [[oriental studies|orientalist]] and [[archaeology|archaeologist]]. In 1839, he followed his cousin, Cardale, to [[St John's College, Cambridge]] and graduated in 1843, seventh in the first class of the classical tripos and a ''senior optime''.<ref>{{acad|id=BBNN839C|name=Babington, Churchill}}</ref> In 1845 he obtained the Hulsean Prize for his essay ''The Influence of Christianity in promoting the Abolition of Slavery in Europe''. In 1846, he was elected to a fellowship and took orders. He proceeded to the degree of M.A. in 1846 and D.D. in 1879. From 1848 to 1861, he was vicar of [[Horningsea]], near [[Cambridge]], and from 1866 to his death he was vicar of [[Cockfield, Suffolk|Cockfield]] in [[Suffolk]]. From 1865 to 1880, he held the [[Disney Professorship of Archaeology|Disney professorship of archaeology]] at Cambridge. In his lectures, illustrated from his own collections of coins and vases, he dealt chiefly with [[Pottery of Ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[Ancient Roman pottery]] and [[numismatics]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Babington wrote on a variety of subjects. His early familiarity with country life gave him a taste for natural history, especially [[botany]] and [[ornithology]]. He was also an authority on [[conchology]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He collected on field trips along with many others including [[Edward Byles Cowell]]. He was among the few to record the endangered [[eskimo curlew]] in England.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Melling, Tim|year=2014|title=The Eskimo Curlew in Britain|url=https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/V103_N02_P080%E2%80%93092_A.pdf|journal=British Birds|volume=103|issue=2|pages=80–92}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Armstrong, Patrick|year=2020|title=The Parson-Naturalist in Suffolk|journal=Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc.|volume=56|pages=27–36}}</ref> He was the author of the appendices on botany (in part) and ornithology in Potter's ''History and Antiquities of Charnwood Forest'' (1842).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} In 1853, he was elected a Fellow of the [[Linnean Society]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Andrew|date=1889|title=The Rev. Churchill Babington, D.D., and John Percy, M.D., F.R.S.|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03746608909468382|journal=Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh|language=en|volume=17|issue=1–4|pages=519–522|doi=10.1080/03746608909468382|issn=0374-6607}}</ref>

His family was connected with that of the Macaulays and he wrote ''Mr Macaulay's Character of the Clergy'' (1849), a defence of the clergy of the 17th Century, which received the approval of [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone]]. He also brought out the ''[[List of editiones principes in Greek|editio princeps]]'' of the speeches of [[Hypereides]] ''Against [[Demosthenes]]'' (1850), ''On Behalf of Lycophron and Euxenippus'' (1853) and his ''Funeral Oration'' (1858). It was by his edition of these speeches from the papyri discovered at [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]] (Egypt) in 1847 and 1856 that Babington's fame as a Greek scholar was made.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1855, he published an edition of ''Benefizio della Morte di Cristo'', a remarkable book of the Reformation period, attributed to [[Aonio Paleario|Paleario]], of which nearly all the copies had been destroyed by the Inquisition. Babington's edition was a facsimile of the ''[[editio princeps]]'' published at Venice in 1543, with an Introduction and French and English versions. He also edited the first two volumes of [[Ranulf Higdon|Higden]]'s ''Polychronicon'' (1858) and [[Reginald Pecock|Bishop Pecock]]'s ''Represser of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy'' (1860); ''Introductory Lecture on Archaeology'' (1865); ''Roman Antiquities found at Rougham'' (1872); ''Catalogue of Birds of [[Suffolk]]'' (1884–1886); ''Flora of Suffolk'' (with [[William Marsden Hind]], 1889), etc.  He catalogued the classical manuscripts in the University Library and the Greek and English coins in the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

He died of rheumatic fever and was survived only by his widow, daughter of Colonel John Alexander Wilson.

{{botanist|C.Bab.|Babington, Churchill}}

==See also==
* [[:Category:Taxa named by Churchill Babington]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Babington, Churchill|volume=3|page=96}}
*{{cite DNBSupp|wstitle=Babington, Churchill|volume=I|last=Seccombe|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Seccombe}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[John Howard Marsden|John Marsden]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Disney Professor of Archaeology|Disney Professor of Archaeology, Cambridge University]]|years=1865–1879}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Percy Gardner]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babington, Churchill}}
[[Category:1821 births]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Rothley]]
[[Category:English classical scholars]]
[[Category:English archaeologists]]
[[Category:19th-century English botanists]]
[[Category:English mycologists]]
[[Category:English numismatists]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Babington family|Churchill]]
[[Category:Disney Professors of Archaeology]]