ABRAHAM, CHARLES JOHN (1814-1903) was born at Farnborough, Hampshire, and was the son of Captain Thomas A. Abraham, 46th Regiment, then on the staff of the Royal Military College. Educated first at Dr Arnold's school at Laleham, he went to Eton (where he played in the XI) and then as a scholar to King's College, Cambridge (of which Thackeray was provost). A fine classical scholar, his Horace and Homer remained with him throughout life. He graduated B.A. (1837) and M.A. (1840), and succeeded to a fellowship, which he held until 1850. Ordained deacon in 1838, he was curate of Headley Downs for a while and then returned to Eton as an assistant master. While there he became the close friend of G. A. Selwyn (q.v.). Abraham published in 1846 Ancient and Modern History. In 1848-49, while still at Eton, he was divinity lecturer at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and in the latter year he published the Festival and Lenten Lectures, delivered in that capacity. Having remained at Eton long enough to assist in the carrying out of important reforms in the school, Abraham at last, in 1850, fulfilled a longstanding promise by coming out to Auckland to accept the post of chaplain and principal of St. John's College. Thenceforward he was intimately associated with Bishop Selwyn in the work and organisation of the Church in New Zealand. In 1853 he was appointed archdeacon of Waitemata. When the see was subdivided Abraham was nominated as the first Bishop of Wellington, and he was consecrated at Lambeth in 1858 along with his friend Edmund Hobhouse (q.v.), who had been designated first Bishop of Nelson. In the new diocese Abraham took a firm stand for justice for the Maori people in the war. In 1870 he resigned the see to accept Selwyn's invitation to be his assistant bishop at Lichfield. Two years later he was presented with the prebendial stall of Bobenhall in Lichfield Cathedral, and in 1876 Selwyn gave him a residentiary canonry, which he held till 1890. He was rector of Tatenhill, Staffordshire (1875-76) and resided for the last few years of his life with his son, Bishop C. T. Abraham (then vicar of Bakewell). He died on 4 Feb 1903. Abraham married in 1850 Caroline Harriet, daughter of Sir Charles T. Palmer, of Wanlip Hall, Leicestershire; she died in 1877, leaving an only son. Abraham was a total abstainer and an advocate of temperance. His work for Eton College is commemorated by a marble slab and effigy in the college. The foundation of Selwyn College, Cambridge, was due to the joint efforts of Sir William Martin (q.v.), Hobhouse and Abraham.

D.N.B.; Davis (p); Tucker; Selwyn, Annals; Jacobs; Maxwell Lyte, History of Eton.

Reference: Volume 1, page 17

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