Horne,_George

Horne, George (1730-1792), English divine, was born on the 1st of November 1730, at Otham near Maidstone, and received his education at Maidstone school and University College, Oxford. In 1749 he became a fellow of Magdalen, of which college he was elected president in 1768. As a preacher he early attained great popularity, and was, albeit unjustly, accused of Methodism. His reputation was helped by several clever if somewhat wrong-headed publications, including a satirical pamphlet entitled The Theology and Philosophy of Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis (1751), a defence of the Hutchinsonians in A Fair, Candid and Impartial State of the Case between Sir Isaac Newton and Mr Hutchinson (1753), and critiques upon William Law (1758) and Benjamin Kennicott (1760). In 1771 he published his well-known Commentary on the Psalms. a series of expositions based on the Messianic idea. In 1776 he was chosen vice-chancellor of his university; in 1781 he was made dean of Canterbury, and in 1790 was raised to the see of Norwich. He died at Bath on the 17th of January 1792.

His collected Works were published with a Memoir by William Jones in 1799.

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