[A.D. 1721, translated to Rochester 1731.] Joseph Wilcocks. Bishop Wilcocks held the deanery of Westminster with the see of Rochester. The western towers of Westminster Abbey were built during his rule.
[A.D. 1731-1733.] Elias Sydall, translated to Gloucester from St. David’s. With Gloucester he held the deanery of Canterbury.
[A.D. 1735-1752.] Martin Benson. In 1741 Bishop Benson re-paved the choir of the cathedral, and added pinnacles to the Lady-chapel.
[A.D. 1652, translated to Worcester 1759.] James Johnson. In 1774 he was killed by a fall from his horse, at Bath.
[A.D. 1760-1779.] William Warburton, whose name is better known than that of any other prelate who has filled the see; and who was not the least remarkable among the men of letters of the eighteenth century. Warburton was the eldest son of an attorney at Newark-upon-Trent, and was born there, Dec. 24, 1691. He was educated at Oakham, in Rutlandshire, and was intended for his father’s profession, which he followed for a short time. He left it for the Church, however, and was in Orders in 1728, when his patron, Sir Robert Sutton, gave him the rectory of Burnt Broughton, in Lincolnshire. Here he remained for some years, and wrote here the first part of his “Divine Legation of Moses,” which procured him an introduction to the Prince of Wales, who made him one of his chaplains. In 1746 he was chosen Preacher at Lincoln’s Inn, and in 1757 became Dean of Bristol. In 1760 he was raised to the see of Gloucester, and died at the palace there, aged 81, June 7, 1779.
Bishop Warburton was the close friend and companion of Pope, who derived much assistance from his criticism, and whose works he edited. His own most important works are “The Divine Legation of Moses,” and “Julian,” a discourse concerning the earthquake and fiery eruption which defeated the Emperor’s attempt to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. The entire list of his works is a long one, and his literary life belongs too completely to the literary history of the century to be further noticed here. “He was a man,” writes Dr. Johnson, “of vigorous faculties, a mind fervid and vehement, supplied by incessant and unlimited enquiry, with wonderful extent and variety of knowledge, which yet had not oppressed his imagination, nor clouded his perspicacity. To every work he brought a memory full fraught, together with a fancy fertile of original combinations; and at once exerted the powers of the scholar, the reasoner, and the wit. But his knowledge was too multifarious to be always exact, and his pursuits were too eager to be always cautious. His abilities gave him a haughty consequence, which he disdained to conceal or mollify; and his impatience of opposition disposed him to treat his adversaries with such contemptuous superiority as made his readers commonly his enemies, and excited against the advocate the wishes of some who favoured the cause. He seems to have adopted the Roman Emperor’s determination, ‘oderint dum metuant;’ he used no allurements of gentle language, but wished to compel rather than persuade.”
All that modern readers can desire to know of Bishop Warburton, will be found in his Life by the Rev. J. S. Watson. London, 1863. He was buried in the nave of his cathedral; (Pt. I. § VI.)
[A.D. 1779, translated to Ely 1781.] James Yorke, translated to Gloucester from St. David’s. He was the youngest son of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke.
[A.D. 1781, translated to St. Asaph 1789.] Samuel Hallifax; had been successively Professor of Arabic and Regius Professor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge.
[A.D. 1789, translated to Bath and Wells 1802.] Richard Beadon.