Henry Wharton (9 November 1664 – 5 March 1695) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

writer and librarian.

Life

Wharton was descended from Thomas, 2nd Baron Wharton (1520–1572), being a son of the Rev. Edmund Wharton, vicar of

Worstead Worstead is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It lies south of North Walsham, north of Wroxham, and north of Norwich. The village is served by Worstead railway station on the Bittern Line. For the purposes of local ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. Born at Worstead, he was educated by his father, and then at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

. Both his industry and his talents were exceptional, and his university career was brilliant. In 1686 he entered the service of the ecclesiastical historian, the Rev.

William Cave William Cave (30 December 1637 – 4 August 1713) was an English divine and patristic scholar. Life Cave was born at Pickwell, Leicestershire, of which parish his father, John Cave was vicar. He was educated at Oakham School and St John's Co ...

(1637–1713), whom he helped in his literary work; but considering that his assistance was not sufficiently appreciated he soon forsook this employment. In 1687 he was ordained deacon, and in 1688 he made the acquaintance of the

archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

William Sancroft William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indulge ...

, under whose generous patronage some of his literary work was done. The archbishop, who had a very high opinion of Wharton's character and talents, made him one of his

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

s, and presented him to the Kentish living of Sundridge, and afterwards to that of Chartham in the same county. In 1689 he took the oath of allegiance to

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily (c. 1186–c. 1198) * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg ...

and

Mary II Mary II (30 April 166228 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, William III & II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. Mary was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York, and his first wife ...

, but he wrote a severe criticism of

bishop Burnet Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, ...

's ''History of the Reformation'', and it was partly owing to the bishop's hostility that he did not obtain further preferment in the English church. He died on 5 March 1695, and was buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

Works

Wharton's major work is his ''Anglia Sacra'', a collection of the lives of English archbishops and bishops, which was published in two volumes in 1691. Some of these were written by Wharton himself; others were borrowed from early writers. These include

Stephen Birchington Stephen Birchington (died 1407) was a British monk and writer in the 14th century. Life His name probably derives from a village in the Isle of Thanet. He became a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury in 1382, though it is said that he had a previou ...

's ''Vitae Archiepiscoporum Cantuariensium''. His other writings include, in addition to his criticism of the ''History of the Reformation'', ''A Treatise of the Celibacy of the Clergy'' (1688); ''The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome Demonstrated in Some Observations upon the Life of

Ignatius Loyola Ignatius of Loyola, S.J. (born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola; eu, Ignazio Loiolakoa; es, Ignacio de Loyola; la, Ignatius de Loyola; – 31 July 1556), venerated as Saint Ignatius of Loyola, was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian, ...

'' (1688) ; and ''A Defence of Pluralities'' (1692, new ed. 1703). In

Lambeth Palace Library Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite ...

there are sixteen volumes of Wharton's manuscripts. Describing him as "this wonderful man",

William Stubbs William Stubbs (21 June 182522 April 1901) was an English historian and Anglican bishop. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1866 and 1884. He was Bishop of Chester from 1884 to 1889 and Bishop of O ...

says that Wharton did for the elucidation of English Church history "more than any one before or since". A life of Wharton is included in

George D'Oyly George D'Oyly (1778–1846) was an English cleric and academic, theologian and biographer. Life The fourth son of Matthias D'Oyly, archdeacon of Lewes and rector of Buxted, Sussex, he was born 31 October 1778; of his brothers the eldest was T ...

's ''Life'' of

(1821).

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wharton 1664 births 1695 deaths English religious writers Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge English male non-fiction writers English librarians People from Worstead