This article is about the Anglican bishop. For his son, the Anglican cleric, see William Bruère Otter. For his great-grandson, the Canadian soldier, see William Dillon Otter.
William Otter was born at Cuckney, Nottinghamshire on 23 October 1768, the son of Dorothy (née Wright) Otter (d. 1772) and the Rev. Edward Otter.[2] He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was later made a fellow.[3]
Bust of William Otter in St John the Baptist's Kinlet
He was appointed Principal of the newly established King's College, London, in 1831, and held the post until 1836 when he was appointed Bishop of Chichester.[4] Otter established a small college to train schoolmasters in 1840, which was rebuilt in his memory in 1849 as Bishop Otter College. The college failed in 1867 and it was relaunched in 1873 with Fanny Trevor as Lady Principal. It is now the main Bishop Otter Campus of the University of Chichester.[5]
On 3 July 1804, he married Nancy Sadleir Bruère in Leatherhead, Surrey. Nancy was a granddaughter of George Bruere, BritishGovernor of Bermuda. Together, they had three sons and five daughters:[2]
Jacqueline Elizabeth Otter (1811–1849), who married Alexander Trotter, a banker and stockbroker at Coutts Bank. After her death, he married Isabella Strange, a daughter of Sir Thomas Strange.[a]
Through his daughter Jacqueline, he was a grandfather of Coutts Trotter (1837–1887), Vice Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Edward Bush Trotter (1842–1920), Archdeacon of Western Downs, Australia, Col. Sir Henry Trotter.[11] Through his daughter Maria, he was a grandfather of Maj. William Christopher James, who married Effie Gray Millais (the daughter of Effie Gray and John Everett Millais).
^The children of Alexander Trotter and his second wife, Isabella Strange (1816–1878), had several additional children including: Isabella Lilias Trotter (1853–1928), Alexander Pelham Trotter (1857–1947) an electrical engineer who married Alys Fane Keatinge, and Margaret Trotter (1850–1942) who married the historian Hugh Edward Egerton (1855–1927).
