DALTON, John, D. D. an eminent divine and poet, was the son of the Reverend John Dalton, rector of Dean, near Whitehaven in Cumberland, where he was born in 1709. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, and became tutor or governor to Lord Beauchamp, only son of the Earl of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, during which time he adapted Milton's admirable Mask of Comus to the stage, by a judicious insertion of several songs and different passages selected from other works of Milton,
as well as of several songs and other elegant additions of his own, suited to the characters and to the manner of the original author. During the run of this piece he industriously sought out a grand-daughter of Milton's, who was then oppressed with age and poverty, and procured her a benefit, the profits of which amounted to a very considerable sum. He was promoted by the king to a prebend of Worcester, where he died on the 22d of July 1763. Besides the above, he wrote a descriptive poem, addressed to two ladies at their return from viewing the coal mines near Whitehaven, and Remarks on twelve historical designs of Raffaele, and the Museum Græcum et Ægyptiacum.