WHITAKER

WHITAKER, JOHN, was born at Manchester on the 27th of April 1735. His father, James Whitaker, does not appear to have been in affluent circumstances. At the age of ten, the son was sent to the free-school, and in 1752 was removed to Oxford upon an exhibition of ten pounds a year. He was entered of Brasen-nose College, but on the 2d of March 1753 was elected scholar of Corpus Christi. He proceeded A.M. in 1759, and in the following year was ordained deacon and priest. On the 21st of January 1763 he was elected fellow of his college, and on the 1st of July 1767 took the degree of B.D. For many years he served the curacy of Bray in Berkshire for Dr Berkeley, a son of the famous Bishop of Cloyne; and was subsequently curate of Newton in Lancashire. He gave the first conspicuous proof of his abilities by the publication of The History of Manchester. Lond. 1771, 4to. The second volume followed in the year 1775; but although four books were originally promised, only two are thus completed; they embrace the Roman, British, and Saxon periods of the history. This work, which is perhaps the most remarkable of his publications, was immediately regarded as the production of no ordinary writer, but as more conspicuous for bold and ingenious speculation than for cool and judicious dis-

Whitaker. cussion. Like the other works of the same author, it is written in a lively and rambling manner. His impatience and vivacity rendered him incapable of selecting his topics, and condensing his thoughts; and by adhering to his usual method of writing, a large book may be produced on almost any subject. Before he had brought this work to a close, he published The Genuine History of the Britons asserted, Lond. 1772, 8vo. This volume is chiefly directed against the historical work of Macpherson, better known as the foster-father of Ossian; and both publications have been considered by competent judges as adding very little to the real stock of information. In the course of the following year we find him residing in the metropolis, and officiating as the morning preacher of Berkeley chapel. For this appointment he was indebted to a Mr Hughes; but their connection was of a very short duration, for he was removed from his situation in less than two months. He thought proper to communicate his grievances to the public, in The State of the Case between Mr Whitaker and Mr Hughes, relative to the Morning Preachery of Berkeley Chapel, Lond. 1774, 4to. His resentment was so strong, and his discretion so weak, that he thus subjected himself to the vexation of a lawsuit, and the Court of King's Bench held his printed Case to be a libel. On the 23d of August 1777, he succeeded to the rectory Ruan-Lanyhorne, one of the most valuable livings in the gift of his college. He now withdrew into Cornwall, and took possession of his benefice; and he afterwards married Jane Tregenna, a lady of an ancient Cornish family. Her great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, were successively rectors of Mawgan in Pydar. His next publication was of a professional kind, namely, Sermons upon Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell, Lond. 1783, 12mo. He afterwards engaged in the famous controversy respecting the character of Queen Mary, and produced an immense work under the title of Mary Queen of Scots vindicated, Lond. 1787, 3 vols. 8vo. He published an enlarged edition in the year 1790; and he seems to have been not a little mortified that neither Lord Hailes nor Dr Robertson could be induced to print a single page against him. This production, which is by no means eminent for coolness of reasoning, or sobriety of manner, has probably convinced very few competent judges of historical evidence, who have submitted to the labour of a patient investigation. Having again recurred to his theological studies, Whitaker published a large volume, entitled The Origin of Arianism disclosed, Lond. 1791, 8vo. Whatever might be the opinion of others,¹ it is clear that the author himself entertained a favourable enough opinion of this production; which he represents as "a train of historical argumentation, at once novel in its direction, comprehensive in its scope, and decisive in its efficacy." If he could not discuss a point of history without heat and violence, it is easy to conceive how he would be disposed to discuss a point of heresy. Whitaker had contributed to the English Review a series of articles on Gibbon's history, which were now reprinted in a separate form, under the title of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in vols. i. v. vi. 4to, reviewed, Lond. 1791, 8vo. This work, which extends to a considerable volume, is written in his usual vein, with sufficient acuteness and animation, but with little suavity of manner or elegance of style. Whitaker is always an intrepid writer; he is never afraid to deliver a decided opinion; and whether the subject is very familiar or quite new to him, his tone of decision is commonly the same. Thus, for example, in his animadversions on Gibbon's admirable chapter relating to the Roman jurisprudence, he is pleased to declare, that "nothing can subdue the native barrenness of such a field

as this." His censure refers to a subject of which he may be considered as in a state of almost total ignorance: he seems to have been alike unacquainted with this science, and incapable of appreciating the masterly manner in which it is here discussed. It may indeed be affirmed that there is no portion of Gibbon's work more remarkable than this very chapter: although his early studies had not prepared him for such a task, he has yet exhibited a rapid and powerful sketch of the Roman jurisprudence, to which it might be difficult to find a parallel in the writings of the professed civilians. And it has accordingly been stamped with the approbation of some of the most distinguished civilians of the present age. It has been illustrated by Hugo and Warnkönig, the former having published it in German, and the latter in French. After an interval of three years, Whitaker produced a copious work on a subject which is certainly curious and interesting. This work he entitles, in his usual form, The Course of Hannibal over the Alps ascertained, Lond. 1794, 2 vols. 8vo. Like some of his former publications, it attracted a considerable degree of attention, and, like them, was found to contain many hasty and erroneous opinions. On this ground he was encountered by the late Lord Woodhouselee, who published, but without his name, A Critical Examination of Mr Whitaker's Course of Hannibal over the Alps ascertained, Lond. 1795, 8vo. In the year 1795, he endeavoured to enlighten the public by an octavo tract on The real Origin of Government, which we have never had the pleasure of seeing, but which his friend, formerly quoted, describes as a very singular production. The last work which Whitaker lived to communicate to the public is The Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall historically surveyed, Lond. 1804, 2 vols. 4to. His vigour was still undiminished, and he had formed the plan of many other works, particularly a history of Oxford, and a history of London: the former he intended to comprise in an octavo volume, the latter he contemplated as "quite new and original, and fit to make a quarto." While he was prosecuting his ardent researches into the antiquities of the metropolis, his friends remarked the first indications of declining health. It was followed by a stroke of palsy, from which his recovery was never so complete as to allow him to resume his occupations with his former vigour. During the last year of his life, he lingered in a state of gradual decay; and he is said to have contemplated his approaching dissolution with the cheerful resignation of a Christian. On Sunday the 30th of October 1808, he sank as into a quiet slumber, without any indication of suffering, and with a smile on his countenance. He died at Ruan-Lanyhorne, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. Of his three daughters, two survived him. One of these, named Anne, was married in 1821 to Dr Taunton, a physician of Truro.

He had recently sent to the press an antiquarian volume, which, after his death, was published under the title of The Life of Saint Neot, the oldest of all the Brothers of King Alfred, Lond. 1809, 8vo. He had likewise made some progress in preparing a life of Queen Mary; and his materials were consigned by his widow to George Chalmers, who adopted them as the foundation of his own performance. He wrote, besides, an introduction to Flindell's Bible, and a supplement to Polwhele's Antiquities of Cornwall, and was a contributor to The Cornwall and Decon Poets. His connection with the English Review has already been mentioned; but he likewise appears to have lent his aid to the British Critic and the Anti-Jacobin Review.

"It is true," says a writer of the time, "to the same warmth of temper, together with a sense of good intentions, we must attribute an irritability at times destructive of so-

Whitby. cial comfort, an impetuosity that brooded not opposition, and bore down all before it. This precipitation was in part also to be traced to his ignorance of the world; to his implicitness in believing others like himself—precisely what they seemed to be; and, on the detection of his error, his anger at dissimulation or hypocrisy. But his general good humour, his hospitality, and his convivial pleasantries, were surely enough to atone for those sudden bursts of passion, those flashes which betrayed his 'human frailty,' but still argued genius." (See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxviii. p. 1037; Nichol's Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, vol. iii. p. 105, and Baines's History of the County of Lancaster, vol. ii. p. 385.)