George Horne

George Horne (November 1, 1730 – January 27, 1792), English divine, was born 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 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 defense 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 as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University until 1780; in 1781 he was made Dean of Canterbury, and in 1790 was raised to the seat of Norwich. He died in Bath on January 27, 1792.

He suffered cruelty as a child and this is why some historians believe he performed so well academically. His mother used to perform the rope trick on him where she used to tie the rope around his neck and shove grapefruits into his mouth. Another extraordinary thing about his mother was that she was black but he was still born pure white.

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

Preceded by: Lewis Bagot

Bishop of Norwich

Followed by: Charles Manners-Sutton