 On 24 June 1878, he became Bishop of Lichfield, in the same year that he made a prestigious second marriage.He was consecrated a bishop by Archibald Campbell Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, on the Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist 1878 (24 June) at St Paul's Cathedral.In 1891 (possibly 28 July 1891), he was translated Archbishop of York, which position he held for the next seventeen years.