Wharton, PHILIP WHARTON, DUKE OF, was the son of Thomas Wharton (1640-1714), who in 1706 was created Earl, and in 1714 Marquis, of Wharton—an eminent Whig statesman, the reputed author of Lillibullcro (q.v.), and Lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1708 until after the fall of the Godolphin administration in 1710. Macaulay says he was licentious and corrupt; but the faults of his Irish administration were largely redeemed by his appointment of Addison as Chief-secretary. Philip, born in December 1698, was educated at home by his father, who aimed at making him a great orator, a Whig in politics, and a Presbyterian in religion. In a boyish freak he contracted a Fleet marriage with the daughter of a Major-general Holmes. The shock is said to have killed both his parents. Wharton soon parted from his wife, and in 1716 went abroad with a French Huguenot tutor, to be brought up at Geneva. He contracted debts, spurned the restraints of his tutor, and running away to Avignon accepted, it is said, from the Old Pretender the title of Duke of Northumberland. He next visited Paris, and after various extravagances set out for Ireland, where, minor though he still was, he was allowed to take his seat in the House of Peers. He soon displayed such splendid abilities in debate, and supported the government with so much zeal, that he was, January 20, 1718, raised to the highest rank in the English peerage. He did not take his seat in the English House of Peers until 1720. Here he opposed with much warmth the government measure on the South Sea Bill, and the bill of pains and penalties against Bishop Atterbury. His affairs became hopelessly involved by his extravagance, so that, although he had succeeded to an estate of £16,000 a year, he was soon compelled to accept a yearly allowance of £1200 from his creditors. He set up a political paper, called the True Briton (74 numbers, 1723-24), and lost no occasion of speaking, as well as writing, against the ministry and the court. In 1724 he set out for Vienna, and then visited Madrid, where he was served with an order from the Privy Seal to return home. He treated the order with contempt, and afterwards went to Rome, and appeared openly at the court of the Pretender, from whom he accepted the Order of the
Garter. He now assumed the title of Duke of Northumberland. In 1727 he fought with the Spaniards and against his countrymen at the siege of Gibraltar. This last mad act lost him his English title and estates, and led to his conviction under a bill of indictment for high-treason. He refused to make his submission to the government; and the rest of his life was passed in France and Spain, at one moment squandering his precarious supplies of money in drunkenness and luxury, and at another suffering the extremest poverty. He died in a miserable condition at a Bernardine convent in Catalonia, May 31, 1731. His brilliant talents and wasted life were sketched by Pope in his Moral Essays, in the lines beginning, 'Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days.'
See the Life and Writings of Philip, late Duke of Wharton (2 vols. 1732), and The Poetical Works of Philip, late Duke of Wharton, and of the Duke's Intimate Acquaintance (2 vols. 1727); and the Life of him by J. R. Robinson (1896).