William Warburton (24 December 16987 June 1779) was an English writer, literary critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759 until his death. He edited editions of the works of his friend Alexander Pope, and of William Shakespeare.

Life

thumb|St Helen’s church at Brant Broughton, where Warburton was rector from 1727

thumb|Prior Park, Warburton's home from 1745

Warburton was born on 24 December 1698 at Newark, Nottinghamshire, where his father, George Warburton, was town clerk.

At Brant Broughton for 18 years, he spent his time in study, the first result of which was his treatise on the Alliance between Church and State (1736). The book brought Warburton into favour at court, and he probably only missed immediate preferment by the death of Queen Caroline.

A series of articles defending the writings of Alexander Pope against charges of religious unorthodoxy, the Rev. Martin Stafford Smith.

Posthumous publications and biographies

His works were edited in seven volumes (1788) by Richard Hurd with a biographical preface, and the correspondence between the two friends—an important contribution to the literary history of the period—was edited by Samuel Parr in 1808. Warburton's life was also written by John Selby Watson in 1863, and Mark Pattison made him the subject of an essay in 1889.

Arms

See also

  • List of abolitionist forerunners
  • Shakespeare's editors

Notes

References

  • Bibliographic directory from Project Canterbury
  • Faith working by charity to Christian edification. A sermon preach'd at the last episcopal visitation for confirmation, in the diocese of Lincoln (MDCCXXXVIII)
  • The nature of national offences truly stated : and the peculiar case of the Jewish people rightly explained : shewing that Great Britain ... may reasonably aspire to the distinguished protection of heaven (1746)
  • A Critical and Philosophical Enquiry Into the Causes of Prodigies and Miracles, as Related by Historians: With an Essay Towards Restoring a Method and Purity in History (1727)