Born on 17 January 1788 at
Newmillerdam, near Wakefield, he was the eldest son of John Lonsdale (1737–1800), vicar of
Darfield and
perpetual curate of
Chapelthorpe. His mother's name was Elizabeth Steer. He was educated at Eton under
Joseph Goodall, who thought him the best Latin scholar he had ever had. He went in 1806 to Cambridge, and became Fellow of King's in 1809. Lonsdale was admitted to
Lincoln's Inn in 1811, but was ordained in the
Church of England in October 1815. In the next month he married, and was shortly afterwards appointed chaplain to Archbishop
Charles Manners-Sutton and assistant preacher at the
Temple Church. In 1822, the archbishop gave him the rectory of
Mersham in
Kent, which he left in 1827 for a prebendal stall at
Lincoln Cathedral. With further preferment, Lonsdale passed in 1828 to the precentorship of the
diocese of Lichfield, later exchanged for a prebend at
St Paul's Cathedral. In the same year he became rector of
St George's, Bloomsbury, where he remained until 1834. In 1836 he was chosen preacher of Lincoln's Inn, and obtained the rectory of
Southfleet, near
Gravesend. In 1839, Lonsdale was elected Principal of King's College, London: the post on its creation had been offered to him. The college prospered under his administration, and the hospital was chiefly founded by him. In 1840 he was elected Provost of Eton, but declined the appointment in favour of
Francis Hodgson, who had been nominated by the Crown, but refused by the Fellows on the ground of insufficient academic qualification. In 1842 he was made
archdeacon of Middlesex, and in October 1843 was raised to the see of Lichfield, and consecrated on 3 December. He was unwilling to accept the offer, but on consulting the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London found it had been made on the recommendation of them both. His episcopate was mostly uneventful except as regards church extension, on a large scale. There was controversy attending the establishment of
Lichfield Theological College, which was settled by him. His sympathies were
High Church; but he protested against the removal of
F. D. Maurice from his professorship, and condemned the existing law on
marriage with a deceased wife's sister, though he did not vote for its repeal. Lonsdale died suddenly at his home in
Eccleshall Castle on 19 October 1867 of the rupture of a blood-vessel in the brain. Various memorials included a monument in
Lichfield Cathedral. ==Works==