Cridge, Bishop Edward

Bishop Edward Cridge was born at Bratton-Heming, Devonshire, England, on December 17, 1817, the son of John Cridge. He was educated at St. Peter's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1848) and was ordained a priest of the Church of England in 1849. In 1854 he married Mary Winnelle of Boniford, Essex, England, and that same year he was appointed Chaplain of the Hudson's Bay Company in Vancouver Island. He was Rector of the church at Victoria until 1874.

Cridge split away from the Church of England in 1874 and joined the Reformed Episcopal Church (of the U.S.A.). He became the Rector of Our Lord at Victoria Episcopal Church. In 1875 he was elected Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church and his diocese included all of Canada and the United States west of the Rocky Mountains. He administered this diocese until his death at Victoria on May 6, 1913. Bishop Cridge was the author of "As it was in the beginning" (Chicago, 1890).