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Sir William Ashburnham, 4th Baronet (16 January 1710 – 4 September 1797) was a Church of England priest and also a baronet.
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William Ashburnham was the son of Sir Charles Ashburnham, the 3rd baronet of Bromham, Guestling, Sussex. William succeeded to the title as 4th Baronet Ashburnham, on 3 October 1762. He married Margaret daughter of Thomas Pelham of Lewes, in Guestling and had a son William who became the M.P. for Hastings.[1]
Ashburnham matriculated in 1728 and then went on to study at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1732–1733.
William Ashburnham was elected a fellow[2] of Corpus Christi in 1733–1735, received his M.A. (Lit. Reg.[3] ) in 1739, and granted DD in 1749.[4]
Ashburnham was ordained 1733 and appointed chaplain to the Royal Hospital Chelsea in 1741.[1] The following year, 1742 he became Vicar of St Peter Bexhill, Sussex.[5] He was made Dean of Chichester in 1742 and in 1743 canon residentiary of St Paul's Cathedral (a preferment he kept in commendam with the see[6]).[7] Then from 1754 he was Bishop of Chichester for 43 years till his death in 1797, one of the longest episcopates for the see of Chichester.[7] Ashburnham was also rector of Guestling, 1743–1797.[5]
During 1767, while Bishop of Chichester, Ashburnham was asked by the dean and chapter to reduce the number of professional adult male singers in the choir (known as lay vicars).[8] The establishment had been for eight.[8] Ashburnham issued statutes to reduce the number to four, their wages immediately being increased by dividing amongst them the stipend originally allotted to the whole body.[8]
The current Chichester Cathedral choir has an establishment for six lay vicars.[9]
William Ashburnham died 4 September 1797.[4]
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