BINGHAM, Joseph, a learned divine, born at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, in September 1668; educated at University College, Oxford; and afterwards presented by John Radcliffe, M. D. to the rectory of Headbournworthy, near Winchester. In this country retirement he began his laborious work entitled Origines Ecclesiasticæ, or The Antiquities of the Christian Church, the first volume of which was published in 1708; and it was afterwards completed in nine volumes more. But notwithstanding his learning and merit, he had no other preferment than that of Headbournworthy till the year 1712, when he was collated to the rectory of Havant, near Portsmouth, by Sir Jonathan Trelawney, bishop of Winchester, to whom he dedicated several of his books. He died on the 17th August 1728, in the fifty-fifth year of his age.