Whiston, WILLIAM

Whiston, WILLIAM, mathematical divine, was born at Norton rectory in Leicestershire, 9th December 1667. Educated privately, partly because his father's blindness required his aid, he at length entered Clare College, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself greatly in mathematics, and obtained a fellowship in 1693. He next became chaplain to the Bishop of Norwich, and in 1698 was presented to the living of Lowestoft in Suffolk. His Theory of the Earth (1696) brought him a considerable reputation, and in 1703 he was appointed to succeed Newton in the Lucasian professorship at Cambridge. But his theological studies unfortunately led him to regard Arianism as the primitive form of Christianity, and with characteristic honesty he made no secret of his convictions. In 1710 he was expelled from his professorship and the university, and the case against him, if it was conducted deliberately without energy, at least lasted five years. He was preached against and refused communion by the clergy, foremost among whom raged Sacheverell. His Primitive Christianity Revived (5 vols. 1711-12) included the famous heretical essay on the Apostolic Constitutions. Whiston spent the remainder of a blameless and busy life in London, usually in straitened circumstances, incessantly employed in writing, in controversy, in scientific crochets, lectures, and the services of a 'Primitive Christian' congregation he had started in his own house. Though an Arian he was a strong supernaturalist, and could defend causes such as prophecy and miracle—even anointing the sick and touching for the evil. His clerical monogamy—now remembered for Dr Primrose's sake alone—was the least whimsical of his peculiar notions, for his identification of the lost tribes of Israel with the Tartars has since been far surpassed. He died in London, 22d August 1752. Whiston's translation of Josephus (1737) is still printed—a carefully revised edition by the Rev. A. R. Shillete was published in Bohn's Library in 1890; his Life of Samuel Clarke (1730) deserves to be; and the Primitive New Testament (1745) is a unique curiosity. His Memoir (3 vols. 1749-50) conveys a very vivid image of this strange, whimsical, eccentric, but thoroughly honest and conscientious man.