Rev. Robert Anderson

The Rev. Robert Anderson (1792–1843) served as perpetual curate of Trinity Chapel in Brighton, England. Even as a young boy, "he walked in all the simplicity of the gospel," said his widow, Caroline D. Anderson, who published a book of his letters and thoughts on his life. "He had early imbibed that pure and heavenly tone of mind which invariably received good and rejected evil." Left in the care of relatives while his father was stationed in India, "he was remarkable for his conscientious adherence to all their injunctions," she wrote. "When he used to pass part of his holidays with his great uncle, Bishop Douglas of Salisbury, it was his invariable remark that his little nephew was the best behaved boy he ever saw, and he would hold him up for example to others." Coming from a wealthy family, Anderson was first educated at the exclusive Harrow School in London, but "extremely delicate health" and "increasing illness" forced him to withdraw. He then attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College near Hertford, England, and joined the Madras Civil Service in India upon graduation. When his father died and his mother returned to England, Anderson felt it was his duty to remain in India. At the death of one of his brothers in 1818, he left his post for a short time to be with his family. However, "the dangerous state of his health" caused him to remain in England for good. "His return to India would have been certain death," Mrs. Anderson wrote. "The medical friends who attended him in London considered the disease which eventually proved fatal to him to have then begun." While she never states what plagued her husband, it is clear that he suffered poor health for much of his life. Anderson briefly served as assistant professor of oriental languages at East India College in Haileybury before being ordained as an Episcopal deacon in 1821 and then as a priest the following year. In 1825, he purchased Trinity Chapel in Brighton, which was consecrated by the Bishop of Chichester on April 21, 1826, with Anderson as its minister and perpetual curate. Anderson wed his wife, Caroline Dorothea, the daughter of John Shore, the First Baron Teignmouth, in Marylebone Church on February 12, 1829. They had five children. In addition to The Lord’s Prayer: A Manual of Religious Knowledge, Anderson wrote A Practical Exposition of the Gospel According to St. John, A Practical Exposition of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Ten Discourses on the Communion Office of the Church of England, Discourses on the Beatitudes, A Pastoral Address on Regeneration, The Book of Common Prayer: A Manual of Christian Fellowship, and The Christian Planted Together with Christ.