Life
He was descended from Thomas, 2nd Baron Wharton (1520–1572), being a son of the Rev. Edmund Wharton, vicar of Worstead, Norfolk. Born at Worstead, Wharton was educated by his father, and then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Both his industry and his talents were exceptional, and his university career was brilliant. In 1686 he entered the service of the ecclesiastical historian, the Rev. William Cave (1637–1713), whom he helped in his literary work; but considering that his assistance was not sufficiently appreciated he soon forsook this employment.
In 1687 he was ordained deacon, and in 1688 he made the acquaintance of the archbishop of Canterbury, William Sancroft, under whose generous patronage some of his literary work was done. The archbishop, who had a very high opinion of Wharton's character and talents, made him one of his chaplains, and presented him to the Kentish living of Sundridge, and afterwards to that of Chartham in the same county.
In 1689 he took the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, but he wrote a severe criticism of bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation, and it was partly owing to the bishop's hostility that he did not obtain further preferment in the English church. He died on the 5th of March 1695, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
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