Henry Nutcombe Oxenham

Henry Nutcombe Oxenham (15 November 1829 – 23 March 1888) was an English ecclesiologist, theologian, author and translator. Originally ordained in the Church of England, he later converted to the Roman Catholic faith and was received into that Chuch. He was born at Harrow School to William Oxnam and Mary Susanna (née Carter), where William Oxnam was a master, and was baptised at Eton, Buckinghamshire on 8 January 1830, where his uncle was Thomas Thellusson Carter. The family name changed from Oxnam to Oxenham in 1834, when Henry was four years old. From Harrow, Oxenham went to Balliol College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union in Trinity term, 1852. He took Anglican orders in 1854, but became a Roman Catholic in 1857. At first his thoughts turned towards the priesthood, and he spent some time at the London Oratory and at St Edmund's College, Ware. Being unable, however, to surrender his belief in the validity of Anglican orders,[clarification needed] he proceeded no further than minor orders in the Roman Church.