WILLIAM, a learned English writer and bishop, was born in Berkshire, in England, in 1627. He was educated under his father, rector of Sonning, and vicar of Tylehurst in Berkshire. He then went to Oxford, and finally took orders. In 1660 he was made prebendary of Rippon, and in 1666 chaplain to the king. In 1667 he took the degree of doctor of divinity; in 1672 he was installed as dean of Bangor; and in 1680 he was consecrated bishop of St Asaph. He was one of the six bishops who, with Archbishop Sancroft, were committed prisoners to the Tower of London, for subscribing a petition to the king against distributing and publishing his declaration for liberty of conscience. Soon after the Revolution he was made almoner to King William and Queen Mary. In 1692 he was translated to the bishopric of Litchfield and Coventry, and in 1699 to the see of Worcester, where he remained till his death, which happened in 1717, in the ninety-first year of his age. Dr Burnet gives him an exalted character, and his works are highly esteemed.