which was of considerable importance to him. In 1701 Whiston was appointed deputy to Newton's Lucasian professorship. He published an edition of ‘Euclid’ for the use of students. In 1703 he succeeded Newton as professor, and gave up his living. He delivered lectures (afterwards published) upon mathematics and natural philosophy, and was among the first to popularise the Newtonian theories. Roger Cotes [q. v.] was appointed to the new Plumian professorship in 1706, chiefly upon Whiston's recommendation, and in the next year he joined Cotes in a series of scientific experiments. In 1707 he was also permitted by the author to publish Newton's ‘Arithmetica Universalis.’ Whiston was active in other ways. He complains of the practice of the time in regard to fellowship elections. The candidates sometimes recommended themselves by prowess in drinking. Whiston proposed reforms of various kinds (Memoirs, pp. 42, 111). He was also a member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded by his friend Thomas Bray (1656–1730) [q. v.], and wrote a memorial for setting up charity schools throughout the kingdom. Meanwhile Whiston, like Newton, had unluckily been combining scientific with theological inquiries. He delivered the Boyle lectures in 1707, and in 1708 he wrote an ‘imperfect’ essay upon the ‘Apostolical Constitutions,’ which the vice-chancellor refused to license. Whiston wrote to the archbishops in July 1708, informing them that he was entering upon an important inquiry. It led him to the conclusion that the ‘Apostolical Constitutions’ was ‘the most sacred of the canonical books of the New Testament,’ and that the accepted doctrine of the Trinity was erroneous. Reports that he was an Arian, or, as he called himself, a Eusebian, began to spread, and his friends remonstrated. He told them that they might as soon persuade the sun to leave the firmament as change his resolution. He was finally summoned before the heads of houses, and banished from the university and deprived of his professorship, 30 Oct. 1710. Whiston went to London with his family, and towards the end of 1711 published his chief work, ‘Primitive Christianity Revived.’ The case was taken up by convocation, which voted an address for his prosecution. Various delays took place, till in 1714 a ‘court’ of delegates was appointed by the lord chancellor for his trial. The proceedings against him were dropped after the death of Queen Anne. (Whiston published an account of the proceedings against him at Cambridge in 1711 and 1718. Various ‘papers’ relating to the proceedings in convocation and the court of delegates were published by him in 1715. See also appendices to Primitive Christianity, and Cobbett's State Trials, xv. 703–16). Whiston was known to many leading divines of the time, especially to Samuel Clarke, who had succeeded him as chaplain to Moore, and Hoadly, who sympathised with some of his views, but were cautious in avowing their opinions. Whiston was now a poor man. He states (Memoirs, p. 290) that he had a small farm near Newmarket, and that he received gifts from various friends, and had in later years a life annuity of 20l. from Sir Joseph Jekyll [q. v.], and 40l. a year from Queen Caroline (continued, it is said, after her death by George II). These means, together with ‘eclipses, comets, and lectures,’ gave him ‘such a competency as greatly contented him.’ When Prince Eugène came to London in 1711–12, Whiston printed a new dedication to a previous essay upon the Apocalypse, pointing out that the prince had fulfilled some of the prophecies. The prince had not been aware, he replied, that he ‘had the honour of being known to St. John,’ but sent the interpreter fifteen guineas. In 1712 Whiston made a characteristic attempt to improve his finances. Simon Patrick, bishop of Ely, had in 1702 promised him a prebend which was expected to be vacated upon Thomas Turner's refusal to take the oaths [see Turner, Thomas, 1645–1714]. Whiston supposed (erroneously, it seems) that Turner managed to evade the oath and to keep his prebend. In 1712 he wrote to Turner mentioning this as a fact, and ‘hinting’ his expectations. Turner, he thought, having wrongfully kept the prebend, ought to contribute to the support of the rightful owner. Turner took no notice of what must have looked like an attempt at extortion. Whiston kept the secret, however, and in 1731 appealed to the corporation to which Turner had left a fortune, stating that he had lost 1,200l. by his acquiescence. He was again obliged ‘to sit down contented’ without any compensation.
Whiston was one of the first, if not the first person, to give lectures with experiments in London (cf. Desaguliers, John Theophilus, and De Morgan, Budget of Paradoxes, p. 93). He co-operated in some of them with the elder Francis Hauksbee [q. v.] The first, upon astronomy, were given at Button's coffee-house by the help of Addison and Steele (Memoirs, p. 257), both of whom he knew well. He amused great men by his frank rebukes. He asked Steele one day how he could speak for the Southsea directors after writing against them. Steele replied, ‘Mr. Whiston, you can walk on foot and I cannot.’
