a very eminent biblical scholar, was born in the year 1600, at Seymour in the district of Cleveland, Yorkshire. He is said to have been admitted a student of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in the month of July 1616. In 1618 he became a sizar of Peter House. He took the degree of A.B. in 1619, and that of A.M. in 1623. He left the university for a curacy and the mastership of a school in Suffolk. He next removed to the metropolis, as an assistant at the church of Allhallows Bread-street; and in 1626 he was collated to the rectory of St Martin's Orgar. On the 15th of January 1686-7, he was instituted to the rectories of St Giles-in-the-fields, and of Sandon in Essex. The former he does not appear to have retained. About this time, he is supposed to have been chaplain to the king, and to have been called to a prebend of St Paul's. In 1639 he took the degree of D.D. at Cambridge; and in the public act, he maintained a thesis against the infallibility of the pope. His wife, Anne Claxton, died in the course of the following year.

Walton was involved in the troubles which ensued; and in 1641 he is supposed to have been dispossessed of both his estates. Towards the close of the year 1642 he was ordered into custody as a delinquent. Like many other members of his order, he afterwards sought a place of refuge at Oxford; and on the 12th of August 1645 he was incorporated doctor of divinity. Here, among the learned fugitives, he met with Dr Fuller, dean of Ely, whose daughter became his second wife. On his return to London he resided in the house of his father-in-law. Undismayed by the change of his circumstances, he planned and executed one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, literary enterprise of which his country can boast. This was the famous Polyglott Bible, of which the plan appears to have been brought to considerable maturity in the year 1652. The design was approved by the Council of State, who exempted from duty all the paper to be employed in the edition; and to the credit of the age it must be recorded, that in the month of May 1653 subscriptions had been obtained to the amount of L9000. Dr Walton had various coadjutors, but the very laborious task of editorship devolved upon himself. As a precursor, he published "Introductio ad Lectioem Linguarum Orientalium," Lond., 1654, 8vo. This introduction was reprinted at London in 1655. The great work itself was completed in the space of about four years, and made its appearance under the title of Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, &c. Lond., 1657, 6 tom. fol. In this edition, nine languages are employed, but not a single book is printed in so many. The four evangelists are in six, the other books of the New Testament only in five, and those of Judith and the Maccabees only in three. The Prologomena have been repeatedly printed in a separate form, and are allowed by the most competent judges to be a work of great erudition, as well as of great value. The last edition is that of Wrangham, published at Cambridge in 1825, in 2 vols., 8vo.

Among those who assisted Walton in his very arduous undertaking, we must first of all mention the venerable Archbishop Usher, who not only aided and directed him by his counsel, but likewise furnished him with a collation of sixteen manuscripts. His learning was so variegated and so profound, that it was of no small importance for the editor to have access to him on all occasions of doubt and difficulty. Another able coadjutor was Dr Lightfoot, and a third was Dr Pocock. The services of Abraham Wheelock, Patrick Young, Dudley Loftus, Herbert Thorndike, Thomas Hyde, Thomas Greaves, and several other individuals, are likewise commemorated. Selden, who possessed a great fund of oriental learning, was a zealous promoter of the design; and he joined with Usher in signing a recommendation, which was printed with the prospectus. He was one of those to be consulted in the progress of the work, and his valuable library was open to the editor.

One fellow-labourer, Edmund Castell, demands a more particular notice. He not only rendered important assistance to Walton, but likewise compiled a most learned and elaborate work, which is always regarded as a necessary accompaniment of the Polyglott. It was published under the title of "Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Ethiopicum, Arabicum, conjunctione et Persicum separatis," &c., Lond., 1669, 2 tom. fol. This Lexicon is a work of stupendous labour; and, according to Dr Clarke, it "is probably the greatest and most perfect work of the kind ever performed by human industry and learning." He was aided by Dr Lightfoot, and by some other orientalists, one of whom was Beveridge, and another Golius. In the preparation of this work, and in labouring at the Polyglott, Dr Castell spent seventeen years, and generally sixteen or eighteen hours a day. In the progress of his work, he maintained in his own house seven Englishmen, and seven foreigners, in the capacity of copyists. He spent the large sum of L12,000, and contracted debt to the amount of L1800; and the recommendations of the king and the archbishop of Canterbury only procured him contributions to the amount of L700. "Though I perish," said this learned and excellent person, "it comforts me not a little to see how holy writ flourishes." He was not however left to perish. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1685, he was professor of Arabic in the university of Cambridge, prebendary of Canterbury, rector of Higham Gobion in Bedfordshire, and chaplain in ordinary to his majesty.

Dr Walton's next publication bears the title of "Dissertatio, in qua de Linguis Orientalibus, Hebraica, Chaldaica,