John William Burgon

Born in 1813 in Smyrna, in what is now İzmir, Turkey, John William Burgon was educated in England and went on to study at Worcester College, Oxford. He became known early as a gifted writer and preacher, and his poem "Petra" won Oxford’s Newdigate Prize.

Burgon spent much of his career at Oxford, where he served at Oriel College and as vicar of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin. In 1876 he was appointed Dean of Chichester, a role he held until his death in 1888.

He is remembered above all for his passionate defense of the traditional text of the New Testament and his strong objections to the Revised Version and to the textual theories of Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort. Even readers who disagree with him often note the energy, conviction, and wide learning that made his biblical criticism so influential in later debates.