Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marriott, Wharton Booth

by George Clement Boase ‎

MARRIOTT, WHARTON BOOTH (1823–1871), divine, seventh son of George Wharton Marriott, J.P. for Middlesex and barrister of the Inner Temple, was born at 32 Queen Square, St. George's, Bloomsbury, London, 7 Nov. 1823, and was educated at Eton, 1838-43. He matriculated 12 June 1&43, from Trinity College, Oxford, where he was a scholar 1843-6. He was elected a Petrean fellow of Exeter College 30 June 1846, but vacated his fellowship by marrying, on 22 April 1851, at Bletchingley, Surrey, Julia, youngest daughter of William Soltau of Clapham. His degrees were B.C.L. 1851, M.A. 1856, B.D. 1870, and he was select preacher in the university of Oxford 1868, and Grinfield lecturer on the Septuagint, 1871. From 1850 to 1860 he was employed as an assistant-master at Eton; he never held any benefice, but was a preacher by license from the bishop in the diocese of Oxford. He regarded many ecclesiastical ceremonies of his time as modern inventions, and viewed the ancient church vestments as simply the ordinary dresses of the period. These opinions he fully stated in 'Vestiarium Christianum: the Origin and Gradual Development of the Dress of Holy Ministry in the Church,' 1868, 'The Vestments of the Church, an illustrated Lecture,' 1869, and 'The Testimony of the Catacombs and of the Monuments of Christian Art from the Second to the Eighteenth Century, concerning Questions of Doctrine now disputed in the Church,' 1870. On 30 May 1857 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a member of the council in 1871. He died at Eton College on 16 Dec. 1871, and his wife died in the following year.

Besides the works already mentioned, Marriott wrote and edited:

1. 'The Adelphi of Terence, with English Notes,' 1863.
2. 'Eἰρηνίκα, The wholesome Words of Holy Scripture concerning Questions now disputed in the Church,' 1864-5, 2 pts.
3. 'Selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses, with English Notes,' second edit. 1868.
4. 'The Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist as set forth in a recent Declaration: a Correspondence between W. B. Marriott and the Rev. Thomas Thellusson Carter, Rector of Clewer,' 1868-1869, two parts. A promised third part apparently was not printed.

Marriott was also a contributor to Smith's 'Dictionary of Christian Antiquities.'

[Hort's Memorials of W. B. Marriott, 1873, with portrait; Boase's Reg. of Exeter Coll. 1879, p. 136; Eton Portrait Gallery, 1876, pp. 195-6; Proc. of Soc. of Antiq. 1870-3, v. 309.]

G. C. B.