T. K. Cheyne

Thomas Kelly Cheyne (18 September 1841 – 1915) was an English divine and biblical critic.

Biography

He was born in London and educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, and Oxford University. Subsequently, he studied German theological methods at Göttingen. He was ordained in 1864 and held a fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1868 to 1882. During the earlier part of this period he stood alone in the university as a teacher of the main conclusions of Old Testament criticism at that time. In 1881 he was presented to the rectory of Tendring, in Essex, and in 1884 he was made a member of the Old Testament revision company. He resigned the living of Tendring in 1885 on his appointment to be Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, which carried with it a canonry at Rochester. In 1889 he delivered the Bampton lectures at Oxford. In 1908 he resigned his professorship.

In June 1901, he received an honorary doctorate of Divinity from the University of Glasgow, and in March 1902 he was awarded the degree Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) from the University of Oxford.

In 1882 he married Frances Godfrey and she died in 1907. Cheyne wrote a glowing a review of the work published by Elizabeth Gibson in 1911. The review was in the progressive Christian Commonwealth. Gibson had published about twenty books of poetry or prose and she was an established writer. Their common interest fueled a whirlwind romance that resulted in their marriage in the Cornish village of Mawnan in Cornwall on 28 August 1911. Afterwards She joined Cheyne at his home in Oxford.