Walton, Brian, Dd

Walton, Brian, D.D.

a learned English prelate, was born at Seamer, in the district of Cleaveland, in Yorkshire, in 1600. He was educated at Cambridge, where he took the degree of A.M. in 1623. He first went to Suffolk as master of a school, and for, some time served as curate; he then went to London, where he acted as curate of All-hallows, Bread Street. In 1626 he became rector of St. Martin's Orgar, in London, and of Sandon, in Essex. Some time afterwards he became a prebendary of St. Paul's, London, and chaplain to the king. In 1639 he commenced as doctor of divinity at Cambridge. About this time he became involved in the troubles between the king and Parliament, in which he made himself obnoxious to the Puritans, and was deprived of his preferments and compelled to fly from London. He took refuge in Oxford, and in 1645 was incorporated doctor of divinity. There he formed the plan of his famous Polyglot Bible, and commenced the collection of materials; but it .was not completed till some years after his return to London, which occurred after the death of the king. The work appeared in six volumes, large folio. It was published by subscription, and is thought to be the first book printed in England on that plan. The first volume appeared in September, 1654; the second in July, 1655; the third in July, 1656; and the last three in 1657. It is accompanied by the Lexicon Heptaglotton of Dr. Edmund Castell (published in 1669, in 2 vols. fol.). This is a lexicon of the seven Oriental languages used in Walton's Polyglot, and has grammars of those languages prefixed. The Polyglot cannot be considered complete without it. The Prolegomena to the Polyglot, which are highly valued, and have several times been reprinted separately (Zurich, 1573; Leips. 1777, etc.), are a monument to the author's learning, and contain sixteen dissertations on the languages, editions, and translations of the Bible, the various readings, critical condition, Jewish and other revisions of the text, the cognate Shemitic tongues and versions, etc. Some copies of the Polyglot are ruled with red lines by hand, and are therefore more valuable. Walton published, besides his London Polyglot, The Considerator Considered (1659), a reply to the Considerations of Dr. Owen: — and an Introductio ad Lectionem Linguarum Orientalinum (1655). In 1660, after the Restoration, he was appointed chaplain to the king; and in 1661 bishop of Chester. He enjoyed the honor of the office but a short time, for he died Nov. 29, 1661. See Todd, Life and Writings of the Right Rev. Brian Walton, D.D., Lord Bishop of Chester. (Lond. 1821). SEE POLYGLOT BIBLES.