NEWTON, Thomas, Bishop of Bristol, and Dean of St Paul's, was born on the 1st of January 1704. He was educated at Lichfield and Westminster; and had his university course at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in arts, and attained to the rank of a fellow. He took clerical orders in 1729; and after holding a curacy at St George's, Hanover Square, London, he received his first preferment at Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street. In the spring of 1744 he was, through the interest of the Earl of Bath, his great friend and patron, presented to the rectory of St Mary-le-Bow. He took his doctor's degree in 1745; and in the spring of 1747 he was chosen lecturer of St George's, Hanover Square. In 1749 he published his edition of Milton's Paradise Lost, with notes from various authors, 2 vols. 4to, which was well received by the public, and by 1775 had gone through eight editions. His next performance of any note was his Dissertations on the Prophecies, 3 vols. 8vo, 1754-8; a work not characterized by very great profundity, either of thought or learning, but which nevertheless attained a wide popularity. They were translated into the German and Danish languages, and received the warmest encomiums from persons of learning and rank. In 1757 he was made prebendary of Westminster, dean of Salisbury, and sub-almoner to His Majesty. Four years afterwards he kissed the royal hand for his bishopric of Bristol; and in 1768 was made dean of St Paul's. Newton's health had never been robust; and after enduring great physical prostration for some time, he died in 1782, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. A complete edition of the bishop's writings, including numerous sermons and dissertations not referred to above, appeared, with an autobiography of the author, in 3 vols. 4to, London, 1782.