William Whiston - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Whiston was born to Josiah Whiston and Katherine Rosse at Norton-juxta-Twycross, in Leicestershire, of which village his father was rector. He was educated privately, partly on account of the delicacy of his health, and partly that he might act as amanuensis to his father, who had lost his sight. He studied at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Tamworth. After his father's death, he entered at Clare College, Cambridge as a sizar on June 30, 1686, where he applied himself to mathematical study, where he was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) (1690), and A.M. (1693), and was elected Fellow in 1691 and probationary senior Fellow in 1693. William Lloyd ordained Whiston at Lichfield in 1693. In 1694, claiming ill health, he resigned his tutorship at Clare to Richard Laughton, chaplain to John Moore (1646–1714), the bishop of Norwich, and swapped positions with him. He now divided his time between Norwich, Cambridge and London. In 1698 Bishop More awarded him the living of Lowestoft where he became Rector. In 1699 he resigned his Fellowship of Clare College and left in order to marry Ruth, daughter of George Antrobus, Whiston's headmaster at Tamworth school.

His A New Theory of the Earth from its Original to the Consummation of All Things (1696), an articulation of creationism and flood geology which held that the global flood of Noah had been caused by a comet, obtained the praise of both Newton and Locke, the latter of whom classed the author among those who, if not adding much to our knowledge, "At least bring some new things to our thoughts." He was an early advocate, along with Edmond Halley, of the periodicity of comets; he also held that comets were responsible for past catastrophes in earth's history. In 1701 he resigned his Rectorship to become Isaac Newton's substitute as Lucasian lecturer at Cambridge, whom he succeeded in 1702. Here he engaged in joint research with his junior colleague Roger Cotes, appointed with Whiston's patronage to the Plumian professorship in 1706.