JOHN

See also:

• JOHN JORTIN (1698—1770)

JORTIN (1698—1770)  , English theologian, the son of a Protestant refugee from Brittany, was born in London on the 23rd of October 1698 . He went to Charterhouse School, and in 1715 became a pensioner of Jesus College, Cambridge; where his reputation as a Greek scholar led to his being selected to translate certain passages from Eustathius for the notes to Pope's Homer . In 722 he published a small volume of Latin verse entitled Lusus poetici . Having taken orders in 1724, he was in 1726 presented by his college to the vicarage of Swavesey in Cambridgeshire, which he resigned in 1730 to become preacher at a chapel-of-ease in New Street, London . In 1731, along with some friends, he began a publication entitled Miscellaneous Observations on Authors Ancient and Modern, which appeared at intervals during two years . He was Boyle lecturer in 1749 . Shortly after becoming chaplain to the bishop of London in 1762 he was appointed to a prebendal stall of St Paul's and to the vicarage of Kensington, and in 1764 he was made archdeacon of London . He died at Kensington on the 5th of September 1770 . The principal works of Jortin are: Discussions Concerning the Truth of the Christian Religion (1746); Remarks on Ecclesiastical History (3 vols . 1751—2—4) ; Life of Erasmus (2 vols . 1750, 1760) founded on the Life by Jean Le Clerc; and Tracts Philological Critical and Miscellaneous (1790) . A collection of his Various Works appeared in 1805—1810 .

All his writings display wide learning and acuteness . He writes on theological subjects with the detachment of a thoughtful layman, and is witty without being flippant . See

John Disney's Life of Jortin (1792) .