(Letters, ut supra, ii. 27). From the puritan divinity, in which he was deeply read, he extracted the strong evangelical kernel of his teaching. His doctrine of the Trinity was the Sabellian scheme propounded in the ‘Scripture-Trinity’ (1725) of Daniel Scott, LL.D. [q. v.], and the ‘Disquisition’ (1732) of Simon Browne [q. v.], works recommended by him to divinity students, and reprinted by his friends. The ‘rational’ dissenters repelled him by their laxity as regards the inspiration of scripture, yet he had a good word for the energetic zeal of Priestley, and viewed Theophilus Lindsey [q. v.], with whom he had scarcely an opinion in common, as ‘a glorious character’ (Letters, ut supra, i. 158, ii. 159). In spite of his connection with presbyterians, he always regarded himself as ‘quite an independent.’ A diploma of D.D. was sent him by New Jersey College in 1773, through Thomas Gibbons [q. v.] He declined it; but in 1781, when he presented to Shrewsbury school a copy of Kennicott's Hebrew bible, with a Latin inscription, he signed himself ‘Job Orton, S.T.P.’
In person Orton was tall, erect, and spare; fond of horse exercise, simple and methodical in his habits, and employing his ample means for charitable uses. An early attachment was broken off at the wish of his mother, and he did not marry. His housekeeper was a sister of Philip Holland [q. v.] Latterly he suffered from aphasia. He died at Kidderminster on 19 July 1783, and was buried near the altar of St. Chad's, Shrewsbury, in the grave of John Bryan (d. 1699) [see under Bryan, John, D.D.]. There is a monument to him at St. Chad's; the vicar, Thomas Stedman [q. v.], was his intimate friend. Funeral sermons were preached by Fownes at High Street Chapel, and by Samuel Lucas at Swan Hill independent chapel. His portrait has been engraved.
He published, in addition to separate sermons (1751–6): 1. ‘Three Discourses on Eternity,’ &c., Salop, 1764, 8vo (translated into Welsh and German). 2. ‘Memoirs of … Doddridge,’ &c., Salop, 1766, 8vo (often reprinted; translated into German by Linder, a Lutheran divine). 3. ‘Religious Exercises Recommended,’ &c., Salop, 1769, 8vo. 4. ‘Diotrephes Admonished,’ &c., Salop, 1770, 8vo (anon.) 5. ‘Diotrephes Re-admonished,’ &c., Salop, 1770, 8vo (anon.; this and the foregoing are in defence of William Adams (1706–1789) [q. v.]). 6. ‘Discourses to the Aged,’ &c., 1771, 12mo. 7. ‘Christian Zeal,’ &c., Shrewsbury, 1774, 12mo. 8. ‘Christian Worship,’ &c., 1775, 12mo (translated into Welsh). 9. ‘Discourses,’ &c., 1776, 12mo, 2 vols. 10. ‘A Serious Dissuasive from … the Playhouse,’ &c., Shrewsbury, 1776, 12mo. 11. ‘Sacramental Meditations,’ &c., Shrewsbury, 1777, 12mo. Posthumous were: 12. ‘A Short and Plain Exposition of the Old Testament,’ &c., 1788–1791, 8vo, 6 vols. (compiled from his papers by Gentleman); 2nd edition, 1822, 8vo, 6 vols. 13. ‘Letters to a Young Clergyman,’ &c., 1791, 12mo, edited by Stedman; reprinted, with additions, in ‘Letters from … Orton and … Stonhouse … to … Stedman,’ &c., 1800, 8vo, 2 vols.; 2nd edition, 1805. 14. ‘Letters to Dissenting Ministers,’ &c., 1806, 12mo, 2 vols.; edited by Samuel Palmer (1741–1813) [q. v.] His ‘Practical Works, collected,’ were published in 1842, 8vo, 2 vols., with letters and memoir. He revised, with an introduction, Bourn's catechisms (1738) as a ‘Summary of Doctrinal and Practical Religion,’ 1749, 12mo; edited Doddridge's ‘Hymns,’ Salop, 1755, 12mo, and the conclusion of Doddridge's ‘Family Expositor,’ 1756, 4to; issued an edition of the ‘Life of Philip Henry,’ 1764, 12mo; and reprinted in 1779 Nathaniel Neal's ‘Free and Serious Remonstrance,’ &c., 1746. At Orton's suggestion, Palmer abridged from Calamy the ‘Nonconformist's Memorial,’ 1775.
[Funeral Sermon by Fownes, 1783; Biogr. Brit. (Kippis), 1793, v. 308 sq.; Protestant Dissenters' Mag. 1794, pp. 177 sq. (memoirs, by Palmer), 1799 p. 202; Palmer's Memoirs, prefixed to Letters to Dissenting Ministers, 1806; Monthly Repository, 1809 p. 337, 1815 p. 686, 1826 pp. 382, 467, 530 sq.; Hazlitt's Plain Speaker, 1826, ii. 291 sq. (a sorry caricature); Humphrey's Correspondence of Doddridge, 1830, iv. 49 sq.; Astley's Hist. Presb. Meeting House, Shrewsbury, 1847, p. 15 sq.; Williams's Church Memorial of Swan Hill Chapel, 1852; Guardian, 22 Nov. 1893, p. 1867; extracts from church book, High Street, Shrewsbury, per the Rev. E. Myers.]
ORTON, REGINALD (1810–1862), surgeon, born at Surat, near Bombay, on 27 Jan. 1810, was the only son of James Orton, surgeon in the East India Company's service and inspector-general of Bombay hospitals, whose father, Reginald Orton, was rector of Hawksworth, near Richmond, Yorkshire. Reginald was educated at the grammar school, Richmond, under James Tate. He afterwards returned to Bombay, where he was bound apprentice to his father. He returned to England on the completion of his apprenticeship, entered at St. Thomas's Hospital as a medical student, and was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1833, and a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in the following year.
In 1834 he took charge of Mr. Fothergill's
