WARBURTON, WHAAAai, a celebrated English prelate, was the son of an attorney at Newark, and was born December 24, 1698. He was articled to an attorney of East Markham, in 1714, and he for some time practised his profession in his native city. His fondness for the church, however, in duced him to take deacon's orders in 1723, and in consequence of having dedicated his first work, en titled Miscellaneous Translations in Prose and Terse, to Sir George Sutton, he was presented by that gentleman, in 1726, to a small vicarage. By the interest of Sir George he was placed in the list of King's Masters of Arts upon his majesty's visit to Cambridge, in 1728, which made up for his want of an academical education. By the same kind in fluence he was presented to the Rectory of Broad Broughton in Lincolnshire, where he continued for Some years in the ardent prosecution of his studies. In 1738, he published his great work, entitled, " The Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated, or the principles of a Religious Deist, from the omiss ion of the Doctrine of a future state of Rewards and Punishments." The second volume appeared in 1741. In 1738 he became chaplain to the Prince of Wales.
About this time he published a Defence of Pope's Essay on Man, and thus became intimately ac quainted with that celebrated poet, who, at his death in 1740, bequeathed to him half his library, and the property of all his writings not otherwise disposed of, which was reckoned about 40001. In
1745, he married Miss Tucker, the niece of Mr. Allen, to whom he had been introduced by Pope, and he then succeeded to the splendid scat of Prior Park.
In 1753, he was made prebend of Gloucester, and in 1754, chaplain in ordinary to the king. In 1754, he became prebend of Durham, in 1757, dean of Bristol, and in 1759, bishop of Gloucester. In 1765, there appeared the 4th edition of the 2d part of his Divine Legation, forming the 3d, 4th, and 5th volumes of that work. In 1768, he trans ferred 5001. to trustees for a lecture at Lincoln's Inn to prove the truth of Christianity from the prophecies in the New Testament respecting the Christian church. The death of his only son, who died of consumption in the 19th year of his age, made a deep impression on his mind, and he died at Gloucester, on the 7th June, 1779, in the 81st year of his age. His writings were published in 1788, in 7 vols. 4to., by Bishop Hurd, with an ac count of his life, writings, and character. " He 'was a man of vigorous faculties, as Dr. Johnson has stated, and a mind fond of retirement. His abilities gaN e him a haughty consequence which he disdained to correct, and his impatience of oppo sition disposed him to treat his adversaries with contemptuous superiority."