Walcott, Mackenzie Ec

Walcott, Mackenzie E.C.

a minister of the Church of England, was born at Bath, December 15, 1821. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford, at a very early period in life entered upon authorship, and for more than thirty years issued a constant succession of works on topographical and ecclesiastical history. As a curate of the churches of St. Margaret and St. James, Westminster, he' was naturally drawn to the story of the historical associations connected with those parishes. His three volumes on the narrative of Westminster, and the two most famous parish churches which bear its name, were published before 1851. In that year he published The English Ordinal: its History, Validity, and Catholicity; with an Introduction, The Three Holy Orders of Ministers in the Church. In 1863 he was appointed to the precentorship and prebendal stall of Oving, at Chichester, and illustrated the history of the cathedral to which he was attached by numerous volumes on its bishops and episcopal registers. He died at London, December 22, 1880. Besides the writings already mentioned, he published, Sacred Archaeology (Lond. 1868): — Traditions and Customs of Cathedrals (1872): — The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical of the Church of England (1874): — Church-work and Life in English Minsters (1880). Mr. Walcott was also a frequent contributor to the Transactions of the British Archaeological Association and the Royal Society of Literature. (B.P.)