SHERLOCK, THOMAS (1678–1761), English divine, the son of William Sherlock (q.v.), was born at London in 1678. He was educated at Eton and at St Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, and in 1704 succeeded his father as master of the Temple, where he was very popular. In 1714 he became master of his old college at Cambridge and vice-chancellor of the university, whose privileges he defended against Richard Bentley. In 1715 he was appointed dean of Chichester. He took a prominent part in the Bangorian controversy against Benjamin Hoadly, whom he succeeded as bishop of Bangor in 1728; he was afterwards translated to Salisbury in 1734, and to London in 1748. Sherlock was a capable administrator, and cultivated friendly relations with dissenters.” In parliament he was of good service to his old schoolfellow Robert Walpole. He published against Anthony Collins's deistic Grounds of the Christian Religion a volume of sermons entitled The Use and Interest of Prophecy in the Several Ages of the World (1725); and in reply to Thomas Woolston's Discourses on the Miracles he wrote a volume entitled The Tryal of the Witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus (1729), which soon ran through fourteen editions. His Pastoral, Letter (1750) on “the late earthquakes” had a circulation of many thousands, and four or five volumes of Sermons which he published in his later years (1754–1758) were also at one time highly esteemed. He died in July 1761.
A collected edition of his works, with a memoir, in 5 vols. 8vo, by J. S. Hughes, appeared in 1830.