The second son of George Daubeny, a
Bristol merchant, he was baptised 16 August 1745, educated at a private school at
Philip's Norton, and sent when 15 years old to
Winchester College. Shortly after his admission he fell ill, was incapacitated for more than a year, and never entirely recovered. He became
head boy of the school, and at age 18 gained an exhibition at
New College, Oxford, where he later became a Fellow. Coming of age, his father having died, he inherited a fortune, but the state of his health constrained him. In 1770, he went abroad to the German mineral springs. In 1771, he visited
St. Petersburg, where, by the influence of the
Princess Dashkow, whose acquaintance he had made in Paris, he was introduced at court, and made some study of Greek Catholicism. On his return to England in 1772, he resided for some months at Oxford to prepare for holy orders, a necessary qualification to his admission to a fellowship at Winchester College. He was ordained
deacon in 1773 by the
Bishop of Oxford, and priest in the following week by
Richard Terrick, bishop of London, and in the same year graduated
B.C.L. He obtained his fellowship in 1774, but only held it for two years, when the college living of
North Bradley,
Wiltshire, was offered him. This living was poor and the parish neglected. He now married a Miss Barnston, and until his vicarage could be made habitable lived at Clifton. He set about restoring his church, and supplemented the Sunday morning service by others in the evening and during the week. He also rebuilt the vicarage, raised the income of the living, and started a Sunday school. He was at first unpopular with his parishioners, both on account of his orthodoxy (most of the inhabitants being
dissenters), and because he had pulled down cottages to enlarge the vicarage grounds. In 1784, he was appointed to the prebend of Minor Pars Altaris in
Salisbury Cathedral, and four years later published his first work, 'Lectures on the Church Catechism.' For the two following years Daubeny resided abroad, and was at
Versailles on the outbreak of the
French Revolution. In 1790, his health was weak and he wintered in
Bath, Somerset and while there interested himself in promoting the erection of a free church. His first sermon in aid of this object produced over £1,200.
Christ Church, Bath was opened in 1798, and was the first
free and open church in the country; Daubeny became the first minister. In 1804, he was appointed archdeacon of Salisbury. In 1801, he had been thanked and invited to court for a sermon preached before the king and queen at
Weymouth. Daubeny declined the invitation, as his retired habits rendered him unfit for a court chaplain.
George III, however, urged his claims for a bishopric upon various ministers. In 1808, he founded and endowed an almshouse for four poor inhabitants of North Bradley, and also built a school at the same place at his own expense. In a charge delivered in 1812 he gave reasons for supporting the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in preference to the
Bible Society, which gave rise to a controversy between the supporters of the different societies, but in which he did not take a very active part. From 1805 to 1816, he was chiefly engaged in literary work and his parochial duties; in the latter year, he had a paralytic stroke. In 1817, he superintended the erection of a poor-house he built for the use of his parishioners. In 1821, he published seventeen sermons, by Bishop
Lancelot Andrewes, which he had modernised with the view of making them more popular. The University of Oxford in 1822, in recognition of his services to the church, conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L. During the following year his parishioners expressed a wish that a church should be erected at
Road to serve a distant part of the parish, and Daubeny set about collecting subscriptions for the purpose. He got a fever, and his life was for some time despaired of. Shortly after his recovery, he lost his wife. During this year the church at Road,
Christ Church, Rode, was consecrated, Daubeny preaching the sermon; its cost, with the endowment and parsonage, was upwards of £13,000, of which he contributed nearly £4,000. On 8 July 1827, he officiated both at Bradley and Road, and on 9 July, he was taken suddenly ill and died 10 July 1827, aged 81 or 82. By his will, he left several thousand pounds towards parochial objects. ==Works==