{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} {{short description|English-born Sierra Leonean Anglican bishop}} {{Portal|Christianity}} '''Owen Emeric Vidal''' (1819–1854)<ref>[http://anglicanhistory.org/england/oevidal/ Anglican History, ''Owen Emeric Vidal'']</ref> was the first Anglican Bishop of Sierra Leone and West Africa from 1852 until his death three years later.<ref>[https://www.radnorshire-fine-arts.co.uk/product/john-james-harwood-portrait-of-owen-emeric-vidal-1819-1854/]</ref>

[[File:Bishop Owen Emeric Vidal (far right) and relatives and probably bishop Ashurst Gilbert of Chichester seated centre probably on OEVs ordination in 1852.jpg|thumb|Bishop Owen Emeric Vidal (far right) and probably bishop Ashurst Gilbert of Chichester (seated, centre), probably on the occasion of Bishop Vidal's departure for Sierra Leone in mid-1852. Photo from Vidal family archives.]]

==Life== Vidal was the son of Emeric Essex Vidal and his wife Anna Jane Capper, daughter of the Rev. James Capper, born at Easthampstead. He was educated at St Paul's School, Southsea. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1838, where he graduated bachelor of arts in 1842 and master of arts in 1845; he was awarded a doctorate of divinity in 1852.<ref name="acad">{{acad|id=VDL838OE|name=Vidal, Owen Emeric}}</ref><ref name="Peerage">{{cite book |last1=Dod |first1=Charles Roger |title=The Peerage, baronetage, and knightage of Great Britain and Ireland|date=1854 |publisher=London : Whittaker and Co. |page=478 |url=https://archive.org/details/peeragebaronetag02dodc/page/n261/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Sierra Leone Studies |date=1966 |publisher=Institute of African Studies, Fourah Bay College |page=211 |language=en}}</ref>

Ordained deacon in March 1843, Vidal was ordained priest in December of the same year.<ref name="acad"/> He was Vicar of Holy Trinity, Upper Dicker until his elevation to the episcopate.<ref>''From the LONDON GAZETTE, Friday, May 21. Downing-Street, May 19'' The Times Saturday, May 22, 1852; pg. 5; Issue 21122; col B</ref> The ceremony took place on Whit Sunday, May 1852, in Lambeth Palace, where the archbishop of Canterbury was assisted by the Bishops of London, Chichester, Oxford, and Cape Town.<ref>[https://www.radnorshire-fine-arts.co.uk/product/john-james-harwood-portrait-of-owen-emeric-vidal-1819-1854/]</ref> Vidal was the first bishop of Sierra Leone, a see that comprised all British possessions on the west coast of Africa between the latitudes of 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south, and in particular the colonies of Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and the Gold Coast.<ref>[https://www.stpeterschurchfajilagos.org/History.html St Peters Church Faji Lagos website, ''The History of St. Peter's Church Since 1853'']</ref><ref>[https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bq/16-7_313.pdf Biblical Studies website, ''Early Religious Influences in Sierra Leone'', article by F.W. Butt-Thompson, published in Baptist Quarterly 16.7 (July 1956), page 319]</ref><ref>[https://www.radnorshire-fine-arts.co.uk/product/john-james-harwood-portrait-of-owen-emeric-vidal-1819-1854/]</ref>

Vidal brought his sick wife back to England in 1854, then returned to Lagos later that same year where he ordained Thomas Babington Macaulay (Nigeria) and Thomas King, who were the first Africans admitted to the ministry of the Anglican Church upon their own soil.<ref>[http://www.archive.org/stream/historychurchmi02stocgoog/historychurchmi02stocgoog_djvu.txt, ‘THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY ITS ENVIRONMENT, ITS MEN AND ITS WORK' BY EUGENE STOCK, EDITORIAL SECRETARY. THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, Salisbury Square, E.C. 1899. Accessed May 2010]</ref> Vidal died while on a sea voyage back to Sierra Leone after his visit to the churches in Yorubaland, on or about 23 December 1854, and was buried at Freetown on 27 December 1854.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=The Times | date=9 February 1855 | page=10; col B | issue=21973 | title=Death Of The Bishop Of Sierra Leone}}</ref><ref>[https://www.radnorshire-fine-arts.co.uk/product/john-james-harwood-portrait-of-owen-emeric-vidal-1819-1854/]</ref>

==Family== Vidal married in 1852 Anne Adelaide Hoare, the fourth daughter of the Rev. Henry Hoare, vicar of Framfield.<ref name="Peerage"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Thomas |title=History of the College of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge |date=1869 |publisher=University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/historycolleges01mayogoog/page/n457 976] |url=https://archive.org/details/historycolleges01mayogoog |language=en}}</ref> They had one daughter, Annie Selina Hoare Vidal.

== Publications == ''A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language'' (with Samuel Adjai Crowther) (1852)<ref>[https://www.abebooks.com/9781356337071/Vocabulary-Yoruba-Language-Crowther-Sammuel-1356337074/plp ABE Books website, ''A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language'']</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://anglicanhistory.org/england/oevidal/ Bibliographic directory] from Project Canterbury {{S-start}} {{S-rel|en}} {{S-bef|before= Inaugural appointment }} {{S-ttl|title=Bishop of Sierra Leone|years=1852 &ndash; 1854}} {{S-aft|after=John Wills Weeks}} {{S-end}}

{{Bishops of Sierra Leone}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidal, Owen Emeric}} Category:1819 births Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Category:19th-century Anglican bishops in Sierra Leone Category:English Anglican missionaries Category:Anglican missionaries in Sierra Leone Category:Anglican bishops of Sierra Leone Category:1854 deaths Category:British missionaries in Sierra Leone