# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Moberly, Robert Campbell

​MOBERLY, ROBERT CAMPBELL (1845–1903), theologian, born at Winchester on 26 July 1845, was third son of George Moberly [q. v.], headmaster of Winchester and afterwards bishop of Salisbury. His mother Mary Ann was daughter of Thomas Crokat, a Scottish merchant at Leghorn. The family of seven sons and ​eight daughters was brought up in close personal friendship with their near neighbours at Winchester, Rev. John Keble and Miss Charlotte M. Yonge. (Miss C. A. K. Moberly, Dulce Domum: George Moberly, his Family and Friends, 1911.)
After two years at a preparatory school at Twyford near Winchester, Moberly became a commoner of Winchester in 1856, and obtained a scholarship there in 1867. Thence he passed in 1803 to New College, Oxford, with a Winchester scholarship. In Easter term 1865 he obtained first-class honours in classical moderations, but in the final classical schools, in 1867, he was placed in the second class. He was awarded the Newdigate prize in June 1867 for a poem on Marie Antoinette. He graduated B.A. in 1867, proceeding M.A. in 1870, and D.D. in 1892. He was ordained deacon in 1869 and priest in 1870. In December 1867 he was elected senior student of Christ Church, and held his studentship till his marriage in 1880. He was engaged in lecturing and teaching in classical subjects at the college, 1868–75. From 1871 to 1885, he was domestic chaplain to his father, the bishop of Salisbury. In January 1876 he accompanied his friend Reginald Stephen Copleston (Dulce Domum, p. 254) to Colombo, where Copleston had been appointed bishop. The visit lasted six months, and on his return to Oxford Moberly published a pamphlet, 'An Account of the Question between the Bishop and the C.M.S. in the Diocese of Colombo.' In 1876 he became principal of St. Stephen's House, Oxford, then founded for the training of Anglican clergy for foreign mission work. In 1878, at his father's urgent request, he undertook the principalship of the Diocesan Theological College at Salisbury. In 1880, on the nomination of the dean and chapter of Christ Church, he became vicar of Great Budworth, Cheshire. As a parish clergyman, he proved himself an earnest and fair-minded champion of Anglican opinions, on such questions as the jurisdiction of church courts, the laws as to marriage, and the educational problem. He had an exceptional clearness of perception of the principles that lay behind practical questions. In 1884 his diocesan, William Stubbs [q. v. Suppl. II], bishop of Chester, brought him out of this retirement to act as his examining chaplain, and to address clerical meetings in the diocese. Stubbs's successor, Francis John Jayne, retained Moberly as examining chaplain (1889–92); and nominated him honorary canon of Chester in 1890.
Moberly establshed a reputation in an exponent of philosophical theology by the paper, entitled 'The Incarnation the Basis of Dogma,' which he contributed to 'Lux Mundi' 1889, and his portrait was strengthened by his paper, 'Belief in a Personal God,' read before the Church Congress at Rhyl in 1891. In 1892 he was appointed regius professor of pastoral theology at Oxford, and canon of Christ Church. His professorial lectures were thoughtful, and he preached with ability in the university pulpit and in the cathedral. In 1900 he became proctor for the dean and chapter of Christ Church in the Lower House of Convocation, and showed brilliant powers of advocacy. From 1893 he was examining chaplain to William Stubbs, bishop of Oxford, and he was honorary chaplain to Queen Victoria, 1898–1901, and chaplain in ordinary to Edward VII, 1901. Moberly died on 8 June 1903, and was buried in the burial-place at the east end of Christ Church Cathedral. In 1880 he married Alice Sidney, second daughter of Walter Kerr Hamilton [q. v.], bishop of Salisbury. His son, Walter Hamilton Moberly, is now fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
Moberly judged his true sphere of activity to be that of a writer. His chief work was 'Atonement and Personality' (1901), a treatise dealing with the highest problems of dogmatic theology in an unusually systematic and original manner. Prof. William Sanday, reviewing it in the 'Expositor,' said that, to find its equal in importance, one must go back to Butler and Hooker. Other works are: 1. 'Is the Independence of Church Courts really impossible?' 1886; republished 1899. 1 'Sorrow, Sin, and Beauty.' 1889 (three devotional addresses); republished posthumously, 1903. 3. 'Considerations upon Disestablishment and Disendowment,' 1894. 4. 'Reason and Religion: Some Aspects of their Mutual Interdependence,' 1896. 5. 'Ministerial Priesthood, with an Appendix upon Romanist Criticism of Anglican Orders,' 1897; republished 1899. 6. 'Doctrinal Standards': No. 1 of 'Pusey House Occasional Papers,' 1898. 7. 'Christ our Life: Sermons chiefly preached in Oxford' 1902. 8. 'Undenominationalism as a Principle of Primary Education,' 1908. 9. Published after his death, 'Problem and Principles' (a selection of his papers and pamphlets on theological subjects and church problems), 1994.
A. C.