Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Warner, Ferdinando

by Robert Dunlop

WARNER, FERDINANDO (1703–1768), miscellaneous writer, born in 1703, is said by Cole to have been educated at Jesus College, Cambridge. He became vicar of Ronde in Wiltshire in 1730, and rector of St. Michael's, Queenhithe, London, on 13 Feb. 1746–7, in which capacity he preached before the lord mayor on 30 Jan. 1748, and again on 2 Sept. 1749. He was created LL.D. in 1754, by what university has not been ascertained, and appointed rector of Barnes in Surrey in 1758. He was much esteemed as a popular preacher, and his writings show him to have been a man of wide learning and more than ordinary ability. He died on 3 Oct. 1768, and was the father of John Warner (1736–1800) [q. v.]

He published:

1. ‘A System of Divinity and Morality,’ London, 1750, 5 vols. 12mo; 1756, 4 vols. 8vo.
2. ‘A Scheme for a Fund for the better Maintenance of the Widows and Children of the Clergy,’ 1753, 8vo. For this scheme, when carried into execution, he received the thanks of the London clergy assembled in Sion College on 21 May 1765.
3. ‘An Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments,’ 1754, fol.
4. ‘Bolingbroke, or a Dialogue on the Origin and Authority of Revelation,’ 1755, 8vo.
5. ‘A free and necessary Enquiry whether the Church of England, in her Liturgy … have not … given so great an advantage to Papists and Deists as may prove fatal to true Religion,’ 1755, 8vo.
6. ‘Ecclesiastical History to the Eighteenth Century,’ fol. vol. i. 1756, vol. ii. 1757; probably his most valuable work, as it is the one by which he is best known.
7. ‘Memoirs of the Life of Sir Thomas More,’ London, 1758, 8vo.
8. ‘Remarks on the History of Fingal and other Poems of Ossian,’ 1762, 8vo.
9. ‘The History of Ireland,’ 1763, 4to, vol. i. In connection with this work, which suggested itself to him while gathering materials for his ‘Ecclesiastical History,’ he undertook a journey to Dublin in 1761, where facilities were afforded him for studying the manuscripts in the College Library, Marsh's Library, and the state documents preserved in the Birmingham Tower and elsewhere. But, failing to obtain the pecuniary assistance he had expected from the Irish House of Commons, he unfortunately desisted from the undertaking, after publishing one volume.
10. ‘A Letter to the Fellows of Sion College … proposing their forming themselves into a Society for the Maintenance of the Widows and Orphans of such Clergymen,’ London, 1765, 8vo.
11. ‘The History of the Rebellion and Civil War in Ireland,’ 1767, 4to, an impartial and singularly accurate work.
12. ‘A full and plain Account of the Gout … with some new and important Instructions for its Relief, which the Author's Experience in the Gout above thirty years hath induced him to impart,’ 1768, 8vo. ‘This,’ remarks Chalmers, ‘was the most unfortunate of all his publications, for soon after imparting his cure for the gout he died of the disorder, and destroyed the credit of his system.’

[Chalmers's Biogr. Dict.; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. There are a considerable number of Warner's letters, ranging from 1753 to 1766, in the Newcastle Papers (Addit. MSS. 32733–33069).]

R. D.