Life
He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an attorney, at East Markham, in Nottinghamshire. After serving his articles he returned to Newark to practise as a solicitor; but, having studied Latin and Greek, changed his mind and was ordained deacon by the Archbishop of York in 1723. In 1727 he was ordained by the Bishop of London.
Sir Robert Sutton gave Warburton the small living of Greasley, in Nottinghamshire, exchanged next year for that of Brant Broughton, Lincolnshire. He held in addition, from 1730, the living of rector at Firsby in Lincolnshire, a post he held until 1756 although he never resided in the village. In 1728 he was made an honorary M.A. of the University of Cambridge.
At Brant Broughton for eighteen 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.
Pope left him the copyright and the editorship of his works, and contributed even more to his advancement by introducing him to Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, who obtained for him in 1746 the preachership of Lincoln's Inn, and to Ralph Allen, who, says Johnson, "gave him his niece and his estate, and, by consequence, a bishopric." The marriage took place in 1745, and from that time Warburton lived at his father-in-law's estate at Prior Park, in Gloucestershire, which he inherited on Allen's death in 1764.
He became prebendary of Gloucester in 1753, chaplain to the king in 1754, prebendary of Durham in 1755, dean of Bristol in 1757, and in 1759 bishop of Gloucester. He died at Gloucester.
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