in 1688 on a single sheet as ‘A New Song,’ with the air above the words: Brit. Mus. C. 38 i. 25. Its effect was emphasised in A Pill to purge State Melancholy, 1715, pref.; it was reprinted in Poems on State Affairs, iii. 230, and in Revolution Politicks, 1733, pt. iii. p. 6, and finally found its way into Percy's Reliques. Sterne appropriately made it the favourite air of ‘my Uncle Toby’ who had served on the Boyne). Wharton is said to have boasted after the event that he had sung a king out of three kingdoms.
Wharton first made himself felt as a politician in the convention parliament of 1688–1689, in which he strongly upheld the view, in opposition to the upper house, that the ‘throne was vacant.’ On 1 Feb. 1689, after supporting the vote of thanks to the protestant clergy, Wharton moved ‘for the thanks of the house to such of the army who have behaved themselves so bravely in opposition to popery and slavery … Churchmen are paid for it, but the army was for another purpose’ (Grey, ix. 41). William and Mary were proclaimed on 14 Feb., and a few days later Wharton was named a privy councillor and comptroller of the household (the warrant in Addit. MS. 5763, f. 6, is dated 21 Feb.).On 1 March he brought a message from the king to the house touching the remission of the hearth tax. In 1690 he attended William to The Hague, when the king held a conference with his German allies, and he is said to have done his best to convince the Germans that ‘we had as good bottlemen as soldiers in England.’ But the comptroller never advanced very far in his royal master's confidence; he was for ever annoying William by hinting his eligibility for higher appointments, while, on the other hand, he was all eagerness to convince the commons of his independence of court control. In 1695 he was on the committee appointed to inspect the books of the East India Company, and in November 1696 he was very zealous in pushing forward the attainder against Sir John Fenwick. In the meantime, by the death of his father on 6 Feb. 1695–6, Wharton had succeeded to the peerage and a clear income of 8,000l. a year. By 1697 he was already claiming an important place in the ministry, and it was a severe blow to him and his friends when, upon the retirement of Trumbull, on 1 Dec. 1697, Vernon was preferred to the vacant secretaryship. The king tried in vain after this to induce him to give Sunderland some moral support in the House of Lords. Yet Wharton had in April obtained the lucrative post of warden of the royal forests south of Trent. As lord lieutenant for Oxfordshire during October 1697, in his passion for pure whig principles, he removed five heads of colleges from the commission of the peace, and put in twenty-four new justices (Luttrell, iv. 298). In March 1698 the king and Shrewsbury were his guests at Wooburn, and in January 1699 the same distinguished personages were godsons to Wharton's son, while the Princess Anne stood godmother. In 1700, as an emissary of the court, Wharton proposed amendments in the bill for the resumption of Irish land grants, but he had to beat a retreat before the strong outcry raised against foreigners and favouritism, which was quite irrespective of party. In January 1702 he was made lord lieutenant of his own county of Buckingham, only to be dismissed from this as well as all his other offices in July, upon the accession of Anne, who is said to have had a strong personal dislike for him, doubtless regarding him as the enemy of the church. The comptrollership went to his special foe, Sir Edward Seymour, whom he had done his best to injure over the East India Company inquiry.
During the latter part of 1702 Wharton was much occupied by a suit concerning the ownership of some lead-mines in Yorkshire, where he had a considerable property. He lost the case by a decision of 14 Nov. in the queen's bench (ib. v. 235 seq.); but Wharton was excessively litigious, various appeals were made, and the case dragged on with varying fortune until the close of his life. In December 1703 he was elected by the lords one of the committee to investigate the so-called Scots plot. During the whole of this year he had been unwearying in his efforts to prevent the passing of the bill against occasional conformity. In January his ardour impelled the lords to the amendments which brought about the shelving of the bill for the remainder of the session. In reply to some personal attacks, Wharton explained to the lords that he had the church of England service read twice a day at Winchendon by his chaplain, Mr. Kingford, and that he commanded all his servants to assist at this solemnity; but, however strict he might be with his servants, it was well understood that Wharton's own conformity was of the most occasional description. Prince George, the queen's consort, who was in the same position, voted with the tories, but he is said to have explained to Wharton that he did so much against his will. ‘My heart is vid you,’ ran the story, was what he said (Tindal). In November a modified bill was passed by the commons and again thrown out. Wharton was urgent with his hearers in the upper
