page_title: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
section_title: Dean of Westminster
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley / Life and times / Dean of Westminster
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait from the Welsh Portrait Collection at the National Library of Wales. Depicted person&#58; &#32;Arthur Penrhyn Stanley&#32;– English churchman, Dean of Westminster
context_page_description: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, FRS, known as Dean Stanley, was an English Anglican priest and ecclesiastical historian. He was Dean of Westminster from 1864 to 1881. His position was that of a Broad Churchman and he was the author of a number of works on Church History. He was a co-founder of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
context_section_description: Stanley was a candidate to succeed as Archbishop of Dublin following the death of Richard Whately in October 1863, but was rejected by the Church of Ireland. Richard Chenevix Trench, the Dean of Westminster, was appointed instead, and towards the close of 1863 Stanley was appointed by the Crown to the newly vacated deanery. In December he married Lady Augusta Bruce, sister of Lord Elgin, then governor-general of India. His tenure of the deanery of Westminster was memorable in many ways. He recognised from the first two important disqualifications—his indifference to music and his slight knowledge of architecture. On both these subjects he availed himself largely of the aid of others, and threw himself with characteristic energy and entire success into the task of rescuing from neglect and preserving from decay the treasure of historic monuments in which Westminster Abbey is so rich. In 1865 he published his Memorials of Westminster Abbey, a work which, despite occasional inaccuracies, is a mine of information. He was a constant preacher, and gave a great impulse to Trench's practice of inviting distinguished preachers to the abbey pulpit, especially to the evening services in the nave. His personal influence, already unique, was much increased by his removal to London. His circle of friends included men of every denomination, every class and almost of every nation.
caption: A caricature of Stanley in Vanity Fair, 1872. The caption was "Philosophic Belief".
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