William Ince

Who was William Ince?

William Ince was a British theologian.

Ince was educated at King's College School and Lincoln College, Oxford, where he took first-class honours in Literae Humaniores.

He was a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford from 1847 to 1878 and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford and Canon Residentiary of Christ Church, Oxford from 1878 until his death. He was also Junior Proctor 1856/7, Preacher at the Chapel Royal 1860-62 and Examining Chaplain to the Bishop of Oxford 1871-89.

The Chapel of Exeter College, Oxford, designed by George Gilbert Scott, was consecrated by the Bishop of Oxford on St Luke's Day 1859. A few weeks later Ince, preaching in the chapel, warned the congregation, 'Better to worship in the plainest barn with the full outpouring of the heart to God, than in the most gorgeous cathedral ever raised…, if only the sense of beauty finds its satisfaction there, and the heart and the life are estranged from God in Christ'.

In 1892 he spoke at the funeral of Noel Freeling, Vicar of Holywell Church, remarking, 'By the strange and wholly unexpected change of circumstance which has befallen collegiate life in this University, he was at his college at the moment of his death the only clerical Fellow of the whole body.'