Whiston, William 1667-1752
English clergyman and mathematician

Born in Norton rectory, Leicestershire, he became a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge (1693), chaplain to the Bishop of Norwich (1696), and rector of Lowestoft (1698). His Theory of the Earth (1696) attracted attention, and in 1703 he became Lucasian professor at Cambridge, in succession to Sir Isaac Newton. He was expelled from the university in 1710 for Arianism, and then wrote Primitive Christianity revived (1711-12). He spent the remainder of his life in London, engaged in one controversy after another, and joined the Baptists in 1747. His translation of Josephus was his best-known work. He also published his whimisical memoirs (1749-50).