William Downes Willis
William Downes Willis (9 September 1790 – 22 October 1871) was a British clergyman, theologian, and author on religious subjects. Early life and education Willis was the son of William Willis and Mary, daughter of landowner Robert Hamilton Smyth, of Lismore, Co. Down, of the family of the Viscounts Strangford. He was born at Dublin, where his father, an Army Captain, was then stationed. His middle name came from his paternal grandmother; the Downes family, of Rotherham, were wool merchants and yeoman landowners who married into the landed gentry Kent family of Kimberworth. Willis was educated at Uppingham and Rugby (where he was a praepostor), then admitted in 1807 to Trinity College, Cambridge. He migrated in 1809 to Sidney Sussex College, graduating BA in 1813, and MA in 1819. Career Ordained a deacon in 1813, and a priest in 1814, by Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, Archbishop of York, Willis was curate- later priest- at Pontefract, Yorkshire until 1816. In 1817 he was appointed curate of Seamer, Yorkshire, and was then made vicar of Kirkby-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, holding this position until 1841; additionally, in 1827, he was made a stipendiary curate at Walcot, Bath, Somerset. His next position was as rector of Elsted with