"He now resided for a considerable part of the year at Durham, and on the chapelry of St Margaret in the city becoming vacant, he was presented to it by the Dean and Chapter on 28 September 1810.

When he was offered the bishopric in Exeter he realised that the stipend (£3,000) was not enough to support his family, so he asked to retain his parish of Stanhope, in Durham (as a non-resident), which would be worth an additional £4,000 a year.

[citation needed] As bishop he was a strict disciplinarian, and did much to restore order in a diocese whose clergy had become extraordinarily demoralized[3] and over which he wielded considerable power.

The gardens in the 25 acres (100,000 m2) of private land stretching to the sea are still a major attraction today together with the Bishop's Walk at the local beauty spot of Ansteys Cove.

The year 1831 saw Phillpotts as the victim of the Guy Fawkes Night custom of burning effigies of clergymen; knowing his reputation he took action by requesting protection, thus the 7th Yeomanry Cavalry filled the palace at Exeter, while the crowd in the cathedral yard burned Phillpotts in effigy; .... hollow turnip as head and candle as nose, clad in mitre and lawn sleeves... (Chadwick I, 1997, p 29)In 1848 he placed an appeal in The Guardian of 5 January 1848, for help for the poor of Devonport; his request was answered by Lydia Sellon who was just about to travel to Italy for her health.

(Chadwick II, 1997, p 212) He was: ... a genuinely religious man with his religion concealed behind porcupine quills, he constantly quarrelled in the House of Lords, exposing opponents' follies with consummate ability, a tongue and eyes of flame, an ugly tough face and vehement speech.

Sydney Smith, a former Tory ally who went on to say: I must believe in the Apostolic Succession, there being no other way of accounting for the descent of the Bishop of Exeter from Judas Iscariot.

(Lambert, 1939, 39) The text concerning the woman who anointed the head of Jesus with a 'very precious' ointment was chosen by the Bishop for his sermon at the consecration on 24 August 1837 of The New Cemetery in Exeter.

The occasion was reported enthusiastically in the local newspaper The Flying Post (31 August 1837): In its language this sermon was most elegant‚ its delivery was a masterpiece of eloquence, and it was one of the most instructive and enlightened discourses that has been heard.

In the foreword to Davies' biography of Phillpotts, Prof. Norman Sykes summarises the character of the Bishop: Henry of Exeter, like Job’s war-horse, snuffed the battle from afar; and scented, moreover, a remarkable number and variety of contests in which to engage, without exhausting his capacity for polemic.

In ecclesiastical matters he was a champion of the principles of the Tractarian revival (a position not to his mind in the leastwise incompatible with mordant criticism of details and individuals); he encouraged the wearing of the surplice, and was a pioneer in the restoration of diocesan synods, and became involved in controversy concerning religious sisterhoods in the Church of England.

His character and gifts must command respect, if not approval; but he exhibited a curious lack of balance, and a failure to appreciate and adapt himself to the mood of the times which must detract from a firm claim to greatness on behalf of one so impervious to the changes in contemporary thought and opinion.

He deserves, however, to be commemorated as an outstanding figure in the Anglican Church of the nineteenth century, and in particular for his High Church sympathies before the days of the Oxford Movement, at the same time noting that he could never quite come to terms with the Tractarians; and also for his many innovations in diocesan administration, for example, his opposition to non-residence, his advocacy of theological colleges, and his courage in convening a diocesan synod – perhaps the most important event of his career.

They must be altered if the Church is to last in England, under the pressure of all that is opposed to it in privileges (supposed or real) of Dissenters – and with the little of real power of restraint over its own members, even its clergy, which it at present has.Phillpotts was renowned for his political pamphlets and the fact that he aired his opinions on every matter of current affairs, although he was not the greatest of diplomats: The House of Lords expected a humane and courtly manner of bishops and was horrified at the fury of his tone, at the incongruity between his violence and his lawn sleeves.

An allegation, made at the General Synod in 2006 claimed that Phillpotts was paid almost £13,000 (£12,729.5s.2d) in 1833, under the terms of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, as compensation for the loss of slaves when they were emancipated.

[8] The same claim was repeated in the House of Commons by Chris Bryant, MP for Rhondda:[9] However, it has been shown that the Compensation of £13089.4s.4d was paid to Phillpotts and three others acting as trustees and executors for John Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley for 665 slaves on three plantations in Jamaica.

[10] It was considered unlikely that any share of such funds, equivalent to more than one million pounds sterling in present value, went to Phillpotts as he would not have been permitted to be paid for acting as Executor nor to benefit under the terms of the Will.

Loyal and even tender in family relationships; staunch in friendships; violent in controversy; brilliant in debate, he certainly deserves to be commemorated as one of the outstanding figures on the Bench during the nineteenth century.The church tower at St. Marychurch was restored in 1873, at a cost of £3,500, in the bishop's memory.

She was a niece of John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon: thus the marriage marked a rise in social status for the young clergyman whose own family background was undistinguished.

Let us write on his tomb one simple word, Requiescat.In Anthony Trollope's 1855 novel, The Warden, the fictional archdeacon of Barchester Cathedral, Dr. Grantly, keeps in his private study "the busts of the greatest among the great: Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Thomas à Becket, Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop Laud, and Dr. Philpotts" (chap.