Lot Essay
Edward Waddington was born in London in 1670 or 1671. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted as a scolar in 1687. Graduating B.A. in 1691, M.A. in 1695 and D.D. in 1710, he was elected a fellow in 1698 and made chaplin to the Bishop of Lincoln. However, on his grandfather's death in 1698 he inherited an estate which provided him with an income of 500 a year and he resigned his fellowship. In 1702 he became rector of Wexham, near Eton and in 1712 rector of All Hallows the Great in Thames Street. He became chaplin to King George I in 1716 and was made a fellow of Eton in 1720. Defeated by Andrew Snape in the election for the Provost of Eton in 1719/20 he went on to be elected as Bishop of Chichester in 1724, a post he held until his death in 1731. He was noted for his restoration of the Bishop's Palace at Chichester and as a generous benefactor to Eton College to which he left his library.