John Bampton

John Bampton (16902 June 1751) was an English churchman who founded the Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford. Biography Bampton's father was Jasper Bampton of Salisbury. In 1705 at age 16 he was admitted to Trinity College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1709, M.A. in 1712. He was rector of Stratford Tony, Wiltshire, and simultaneously a prebendary of Salisbury, from April 1718 until his death in 1751. Will establishing lectures He is now remembered chiefly because of the contents of his will, which directs that eight lectures shall be delivered annually at Oxford in the University Church on as many Sunday mornings in full term, "between the commencement of the last month in Lent term and the end of the third week in Act term, upon either of the following subjects: to confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics; upon the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures; upon the authority of the writings of the primitive fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church; upon the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; upon the divinity of the Holy Ghost; upon the articles of the Christian faith as comprehended in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds." The bequest did not take effect until 1779, when the first lecturer was chosen.