Bulkeley Bandinel

Who was Bulkeley Bandinel?

Rev. Dr. Bulkeley Bandinel was a British scholar, ecclesiastic and librarian.

He was born in the parish of St Peter-in-the-East, Oxford, firstborn son of Rev. Dr. James Bandinel of Netherbury by his wife, Margaret. Educated at Reading under Richard Valpy and then at Winchester College, Bandinel entered New College, Oxford, in 1800 and was a Fellow there until 1813. He was ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1805.

During Admiral Sir James Saumarez's Baltic campaign of 1808, Bandinel served a short while as chaplain on board HMS Victory; but, returning, he settled in Oxford and rose within the University's ranks. From 1810 he was Sub-Librarian of the Bodleian Library under his godfather John Price, and rose to become Bodley's Librarian in 1813 upon Price's death. It was a position he held until his own death in 1861. Bandinel was Dean of New College and Proctor of the University in 1814, and a Delegate of the University Press from 1813.

In addition, his clerical posts included curacies at nearby Wytham from 1816, and at Albury, Oxfordshire, from 1820; then in 1822 he was promoted to the rectory of Haughton-le-Skerne formerly held by his brother-in-law, Thomas Le Mesurier. But Bandinel, occupied with administering the Bodleian and paying from his own purse for bold acquisitions of rare books and manuscripts, rarely visited his living in the North and the parish was run by a curate in his place.