[2] He was ordained as a deacon on 10 March 1811,[2] despite the misgivings of the Bishop of Ely, Thomas Dampier, who found Gorham's opinions at odds with Anglican doctrine.

[4] After being ordained as a priest on 23 February 1812[2] and serving as a curate in several parishes, he was instituted as vicar of St Just in Penwith by Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, in 1846.

[9] Gorham then appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which caused great controversy about whether a secular court should decide the doctrine of the Church of England.

[10] The ecclesiastical lawyer Edward Lowth Badeley, a member of the Oxford Movement, appeared before the committee to argue the bishop's cause, but the committee (Knight Bruce, V-C dissenting)[11] [12] eventually reversed the bishop's and the Arches' decision on 8 March 1850 and granted Gorham his institution.

[14] Fourteen prominent Anglicans, including Henry Edward Manning, requested that the Church of England repudiate the opinion that the Privy Council had expressed concerning baptism.