Philip Bisse 1666-1721

Philip BISSE or BISS 1666-1721

Bisse's bookplate (British Museum Franks Collection 2644)

Biographical Note

Born at Oldbury on the Hill, Gloucestershire, son of John Bisse, rector there. BA New College, Oxford 1690, MA 1694, BD and DD 1706. Chaplain to Bridget Osborne, daughter of Thomas Osborne, Duke of Leeds, whom he married in 1704; his aristocratic connections (he was a cousin of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford) brought him ecclesiastical preferment, and he was made Bishop of St David's in 1710, and of Hereford in 1713. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1706.

Books

Bisse used an engraved armorial bookplate, made when he was Bishop of St David's (Franks 2644); the extent and disposition of his library are not known.

Sources

• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.
• Marshall, William. "Bisse, Philip (bap. 1666, d. 1721), bishop of Hereford." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.