Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/16

 ship with Benjamin White (d. 1794), but White subsequently withdrew and specialised in natural history and other costly illustrated books. In conjunction with White he issued in 1749 ‘Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston.’ His mother died in January 1751, and his father followed her in the year ensuing, whereupon in 1753 John Whiston issued a ‘corrected’ edition of the ‘Memoirs.’ His publishing trademark was ‘Boyle's Head.’ With Osborne, Strahan, and other bookseller-publishers, Whiston took a leading part in promoting the ‘New and General Biographical Dictionary,’ issued in twelve volumes at six shillings each during 1761–2. The British Museum possesses a copy with a large number of marginal notes and addenda written by Whiston. Other biographical memoranda of no great value were supplied by Whiston to John Nichols, and acknowledged by him in his ‘Literary Anecdotes.’ Whiston's shop was known as a meeting-place and house of call for men of letters, and a comic encounter is reported to have taken place there between Warburton and his adversary, Dr. John Jackson. In 1765 Whiston bought the library of (1692?–1765) [q. v.] He probably retired soon after this, and nothing further is known of him save that he died on 3 May 1780. His elder brother, George Whiston, is stated to have been for a time associated with him in the Fleet Street business (, Lit. Anecd. viii. 376), and to have died at St. Albans about 1775.



WHISTON, WILLIAM (1667–1752), divine, born at Norton juxta Twycrosse, Leicestershire, on 9 Dec. 1667, was the son of Josiah Whiston, rector of the parish, by Catherine, daughter of Gabriel Rosse, the previous incumbent, who died in 1658. The elder Whiston had been a presbyterian, and only just escaped ejection after the Restoration. He was, according to his son, very diligent in his duties, even after he had become blind, lame, and, for a time, deaf. In his boyhood William was employed as his father's amanuensis, and the consequent confinement, he thought, helped to make him a ‘valetudinarian and greatly subject to the flatus hypochondriaci’ throughout his life. His father was his only teacher until 1684, when he was sent to school at Tamworth. The master was George Antrobus, whose daughter Ruth became his wife in 1699. In 1686 he was sent to Clare Hall, Cambridge. He was an industrious student, particularly in mathematics, but had much difficulty in supporting himself, as his father had died in January 1685–6, leaving a widow and seven children. He managed to live upon 100l. till he took his B.A. degree in 1690. He was elected to a fellowship on 16 July 1691 (Memoirs, p. 73), and graduated M.A. in 1693. He had scruples as to taking the oaths to William and Mary, and resolved not to apply to any bishop who had taken the place of one of the deprived nonjurors. He therefore went to (1627–1717) [q. v.], bishop of Lichfield, by whom he was ordained deacon in September 1693. He returned to Cambridge, intending to take pupils. He must have been regarded as a young man of high promise. Archbishop Tillotson (also educated at Clare Hall) sent a nephew to be one of his pupils. Whiston's ill-health, however, decided him to give up tuition. His ‘bosom friend’ Richard Laughton was chaplain to (1646–1714) [q. v.], bishop of Norwich. Moore had previously sent Whiston 5l., to help him as a student, and now allowed an exchange of places between Whiston and Laughton. While chaplain to Moore, Whiston published his first book. He had been ‘ignominiously studying the fictitious hypotheses of the Cartesian philosophy’ at Cambridge, but he had heard some of Newton's lectures, and was induced to study the ‘Principia’ by a paper of (1661–1708) [q. v.] His ‘New Theory of the Earth’ was submitted in manuscript to Newton himself, to Wren, and to Bentley. It was praised by Locke (letter to Molyneux of 22 Feb. 1696), who thought that writers who suggested new hypotheses ought to be most encouraged. Whiston's speculation was meant to supersede the previous theory of (1635?–1715) [q. v.] of the Charterhouse. He confirmed the narrative in Genesis on Newtonian grounds, explaining the deluge by collision with a comet. In 1698 he was presented by Bishop Moore to the vicarage of Lowestoft-with-Kissingland in Suffolk, worth about 120l. a year after allowing for a curate at Kissingland. He set up an early service in a chapel, preached twice a day at the church, and gave catechetical lectures. Part of the tithes of Kissingland belonged to John Baron (afterwards dean of Norwich), who offered to sell his property to the church for eight years' purchase (160l.) Whiston got up a subscription, advancing 50l. himself, and ultimately settled the tithe upon the vicarage on being reimbursed for his own expenses. His successor afterwards made him a yearly present of five guineas,