# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Bompas, William Carpenter

​BOMPAS, WILLIAM CARPENTER (1834–1906), bishop of Selkirk, born on 20 Jan. 1834, at No. 11 Park Road, Regent's Park, N.W., was fourth son of Charles Carpenter Bompas by his wife Mary Steele Tomkins of Broughton, Hampshire. The father, whose family was of French origin, was serjeant-at-law and leader of the western circuit, and is said to have been the original of Dickens's 'Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz.' He died suddenly on 29 Feb. 1844, leaving his widow with five sons and three daughters poorly provided for.
Educated privately, William received strong religious impressions, his parents being strict though not narrow Baptists. ​On 7 July 1850 he was publicly baptised by immersion at John Street chapel by Baptist Wriothesley Noel [q. v.]. Having been articled in 1852 to the solicitors' firm of his brother, George Cox Bompas, and being employed during 1857 by Messrs. Ashurst, Morris & Co., he studied in his leisure for orders in the church of England. He was confirmed in 1858, ordained deacon in 1859, and licensed to curacies at Sutton-in-the-Marsh, 1859-1862, New Radford, Nottingham, 1862-3, Holy Trinity, Louth, Lincolnshire, 1863-4, and Alford, 1864-5.
Bompas was accepted by the Church Missionary Society on 1 May 1865, to relieve Robert (afterwards archdeacon) McDonald, who had broken down at Fort Yukon on the Arctic circle (cf. Stock, Hist. Church Missionary Society, 1899, ii. 394). He was ordained priest in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, on 25 June 1865, by Robert Machray [q. v. Suppl. II], who was consecrated bishop of Rupert's Land the day before.
After a journey of 177 days he reached Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie river on Christmas morning 1865. In due time he arrived at Fort Yukon in July 1869. Thenceforth his life was a ceaseless round of journeys from station to station Forts Norman, Rae, Vermilion, Chipewyan, Simpson, and Yukon teaching the Indian and Esquimaux children, systematising various Indian dialects, and sometimes acting as 'public vaccinator' (Cody, p. 131).
In 1872 Bishop Machray created three new sees out of Rupert's Land. Bompas was consecrated bishop of one of them, Athabasca, in Lambeth parish church on 3 May 1874, by Archbishop Tait. On 4 Sept. 1876 he held a synod of his new diocese, consisting of one archdeacon, two other clergymen, two catechists, and a servant of the Hudson Bay Company. In 1884 there was a further subdivision of Bompas's diocese into 'Athabasca,' i.e. the southern part, with the Peace river district, and 'Mackenzie River,' i.e. the northern and less civilised portion, stretching from the sixtieth parallel to the Arctic circle. Bompas chose the latter. In August 1886 he held the first synod of his new diocese at Fort Simpson. Once more, in 1890, there was a division of Bompas's diocese. The eastern portion, stretching to Hudson Bay eastward and to the Arctic regions northward, became 'Mackenzie River,' while to the western portion, which as the more remote he again chose for himself, Bompas gave the name of 'Selkirk,' subsequently altered to 'Yukon.'
The discovery of gold on the Klondyke and the creation of Dawson City in 1897 changed the character of his see. Bompas, who preferred itinerating among Indians, passed his closing years at Caribou Crossing, an important railroad centre, whose name was changed to 'Carcross.' There he carried on a school for Indian children and built a church which he consecrated on 8 Aug. 1904. In 1905 he resigned his bishopric and welcomed his successor (I. O. Stringer). Declining a pension, he desired to start a mission on Little Salmon river, but died suddenly at Carcross on 9 June 1906. With the exception of his visit to England for consecration in 1874 he remained continuously in Canada for over forty years.
On 7 May 1874 he married his first cousin, Charlotte Selina, daughter of Joseph Cox, M.D., of Fishponds, Bristol, for many years in practice at Naples. They had no children.
Bompas was author of 'The Diocese of Mackenzie River' (1888) and 'Northern Lights on the Bible' (1892), both embodying his experiences and observations of travel. More important publications were his primers and translations of portions of the Bible, the Prayer Book, hymns, prayers, &c., in Slavi (for Indians on Mackenzie river), in Chipewyan, in Beaver (for Indians on the Peace river), and in Tukudh (for the Loucheux Indians). These were published by the S.P.C.K. and the Bible Society.
[H. A. Cody, An Apostle of the North, Memoirs of W. C. Bompas, 1908; Robert Machray, Life of Robert Machray, D.D., 1909; E. Stock, History of Church Missionary Society, vols. ii. iii., 1899; private information.]
E. H. P.