Science Fair Project Encyclopedia Born at Worstead, Wharton was
educated by his father, and then at Gonville and Caius College,
Cambridge. Both his industry and his talents were exceptional,
and his university career was brilliant. In 1686 he entered the
service of the ecclesiastical historian, the Rev. William Cave
(1637-1713), whom he helped in his literary work; but
considering that his assistance was not sufficiently appreciated
he soon forsook this employment. In 1687 he was ordained deacon,
and in 1688 he made the acquaintance of the archbishop of
Canterbury, William Sancroft, under whose generous patronage
some of his literary work was done. The archbishop, who had a
very high opinion of Wharton's character and talents, made him
one of his chaplains, and presented him to the Kentish living of
Sundridge, and afterwards to that of Chartham in the same
county. In 1689 he took the oath of allegiance to William and
Mary, but he wrote a severe criticism of bishop Burnet's History
of the Reformation, and it w