WESTCOTT, BROOKE FOSS

Anglican scripturist and bishop; b. near Birmingham, England, Jan. 12, 1827; d. Auckland Castle, July 27, 1901. He studied at King Edward VI School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, receiving his degree in 1848. In the same year he was ordained to the ministry; four years later he became assistant master of Harrow, and in 1868 examining chaplain of Bp. Connor Magee of Peterborough. He was elected regius professor of divinity at Cambridge in 1870, appointed by the crown to a canonry at Westminster in 1883, then made examining chaplain to Archbishop Benson. In 1890 he succeeded J. B. lightfoot as bishop of Durham, where, during the decade of his episcopacy, he successfully met the different social questions he encountered. A prolific writer, he published about 20 books and many tracts and articles. As a scripturist, his most significant work was his collaboration with F. J. A. Hort on a critical edition of the Greek NT (1881). His History of the NT Canon (1855) long remained a standard work.

Bibliography: a. westcott, Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, 2 v. (New York 1903), includes bibliog. v. h. stanton, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 (1901–11) 635–641.

[b. verostko]

Westcott, Brooke Foss (1825–1901). Anglican scholar and bishop. He became Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge in 1870, and with F. J. A. Hort prepared their widely-used edition of the Gk. New Testament (published 1881). As bishop of Durham from 1890 he somewhat surprisingly made social problems his special concern, and was long remembered (cf. Manning) for his mediation in the coal strike of 1892.