Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Anderdon, William Henry
ANDERDON, The Rev. William Henry, S.J., an English divine of the Roman Catholic communion, was born in New Street, Spring Gardens, London, Dec. 26, 1816. Being grandson of the late William Manning, Esq., for some years M.P. for Evesham and Penrhyn, and formerly Governor of the Bank of England, he is, therefore, nephew to the present Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. On the father's side he is descended from a Somersetshire family, several members of which have belonged to the Society of Friends, more than one of them being writers and sufferers for its tenets, in the seventeenth century. He matriculated at Balliol College, and soon after was elected to two successive scholarships in University College, Oxford, graduating B.A. (2nd class in classics) in 1840, and M.A. in 1843. After taking orders in the Established Church, he was presented in 1846 to the vicarage of St. Margaret's with Knighton, Leicester, but resigned that living in 1850, and the same year was received, at Paris, into the Roman Catholic Church. He then studied theology in Rome, and in 1853 was ordained priest. From 1856 to 1864 he held office in the Catholic University, Dublin, and subsequently spent two years in a mission to America, returning to this country in 1870. He received his degree of D.D. from Rome in 1869, but ceased to be so designated on entering the Society of Jesus, in which, after the usual two years noviciate, he took the first vows in 1874. Father Anderdon has acquired considerable reputation as a preacher. He is at present stationed at Stonyhurst College. Since joining the Catholic Church he has edited "St. Francis and the Franciscans," and "Purgatory Surveyed," and has written the following works, most of which have passed through several editions in England, Ireland, or America, and have been, or are being, translated into French and German:—"Bonneval, a Story of the Fronde," 1857; "Owen Evans, the Catholic Crusoe," 1862; "Afternoons with the Saints," 1863; "In Snow: Tales of Mount St. Bernard," 1866; "The Seven Ages of Clarewell," 1867; "The Christian Æsop," 1871; "Is Ritualism Honest?" 1877; "Bracton" (a Tale of 1812), 1882; and various controversial pamphlets and articles in the Dublin Review, the Month, and other Catholic serials. He is engaged in preparing for the press, "Fasti Apostolici," a chronological work, and "Evenings with the Saints."