Life

He was born in the London parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on 3 February 1679. His earliest education was at Chenies

Chenies

Chenies is a village in the very eastern part of south Buckinghamshire, England, near the border with Hertfordshire. It is situated to the east of Chesham and the Chalfonts. Chenies is also a civil parish within Chiltern district....

 in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

; he moved to Westminster School

Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...

 under Richard Busby

Richard Busby

The Rev. Dr. Richard Busby was an English Anglican priest who served as head master of Westminster School for more than fifty-five years.-Life:...

, and then to Charterhouse School

Charterhouse School

Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...

, where he became a private pupil of Dr. Thomas Walker, the head-master. He entered St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, where John Mill

John Mill

John Mill was an English theologian. He is noted for his critical edition of the Greek New Testament which included notes on many variant readings.-Biography:...

 was then principal, and where he had for his tutor Thomas Mills, later bishop of Waterford

Bishop of Waterford

The Bishop of Waterford was a medieval prelate, governing the Diocese of Waterford from its creation in the 11th century until it was absorbed into the new Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore in the 14th century...

. He proceeded to his degree, taking his M.A. in June 1702; and in December of the same year was ordained deacon in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, by William Lloyd, bishop of Worcester

Bishop of Worcester

The Bishop of Worcester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury, England. He is the head of the Diocese of Worcester in the Province of Canterbury...

. In June 1704 he was admitted to priest's orders by Henry Compton, bishop of London

Bishop of London

The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...

. According to Thomas Hearne

Thomas Hearne

Thomas Hearne or Hearn , English antiquary, was born at Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire.-Life:...

 he then left the university and became a preacher in and about London.

In 1708 he undertook the care of the English church at Amsterdam, but returned to England in the following year, and became domestic chaplain to John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland

John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland

John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland and 9th Earl of Rutland was the son of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland and Frances Montagu. His maternal grandparents were Sir Edward Montagu, 1st Baron Montagu of Boughton and his wife Elizabeth Jeffries...

, an office which he retained under three successive dukes. On 11 July 1709 he took the degree of B.D.

In 1711 Felton was presented to the rectory of Whitwell

Whitwell

Whitwell can be a place name in the UK:*Whitwell House, County Durham*Whitwell, Derbyshire*Whitwell Common, Derbyshire*Whitwell, Hertfordshire*Whitwell, Isle of Wight*Whitwell & Reepham railway station, Norfolk*Whitwell, North Yorkshire...

 in Derbyshire by John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland

John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland

John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland KG was the son of John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland and his third wife Catherine Wriothesley Noel, daughter of Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden...

. On 5 July 1712 he proceeded to the degree of D.D. On 20 April 1722 he was elected principal of St Edmund Hall.

In 1736 his patron and former pupil John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland

John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland

John Manners, 3rd Duke of Rutland KG PC was an English nobleman, the eldest son of John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland and Catherine Russell...

, then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is, in modern times, a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom that includes as part of its duties, the administration of the estates and rents of the Duchy of Lancaster...

, presented him to the rectory of Barwick-in-Elmet

Barwick-in-Elmet

Barwick-in-Elmet is a village east of the centre of but still part of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is one of only three places in the area to be explicitly associated with the ancient Celtic kingdom of Elmet, the others being Scholes-in-Elmet and Sherburn-in-Elmet. It is part of...

, Yorkshire. He died on 1 March 1740, and was buried in the chancel of the church of Barwick.

Work

On 7 July 1706 Hearne heard a sermon delivered by Felton at St. Mary's on an Act-Sunday; and added that ‘Mr. Felton lately put out a sixpenny pamphlet against the presbyterians of Colebrooke.’ Probably this appeared in the early part of 1706, and is Felton's first publication. In 1711 he published his ‘Dissertation on Reading the Classics, and forming a just Style,’ a work that he had written for his pupil, John, Lord Roos, later the 3rd Duke of Rutland. It was popular in its day, and passed through several editions.

In 1725 Felton preached before the university on Easter day a sermon on ‘The Resurrection of the same numerical body, and its reunion to the same soul, against Mr. Locke's notion of personality and identity.’ This sermon went through three editions, the last of which was in 1733, in which year he preached a second on the ‘Universality and Order of the Resurrection, being a Sequel to that wherein the Personal Identity is asserted;’ it was dedicated to Richard Smalbroke. In 1727 he issued a tract entitled ‘The Common People taught to defend their Communion with the Church of England against the attempts and insinuations of Popish emissaries. In a Dialogue between a Popish Priest and a Plain Countryman.’ In 1730 appeared the ‘Character of a Good Prince. A Sermon before the University of Oxford, 11 June 1730, being the day of His Majesty's Inauguration.’

In 1728–9 he preached the Lady Moyer lectures at St. Paul's, which he published at Oxford in 1732, under the title of ‘The Christian Faith asserted against Deists, Arians, and Socinians, &c. To which is prefixed a very large Preface concerning the Light and Law of Nature, and the Expediency and Necessity of Revelation.’ This, his major work, was dedicated to Edmund Gibson

Edmund Gibson

Edmund Gibson was a British divine and jurist.-Early life and career:He was born in Bampton, Westmorland. In 1686 he was entered a scholar at Queen's College, Oxford...

, bishop of London. In 1735 he published at Oxford ‘The Scripture Doctrine of the Resurrection as it stood before the Law,’ and in 1736 ‘The Scripture Doctrine in the Books of Moses and Job.’

Some years after his death, his son, the Rev. William Felton, in 1748, published a set of sermons on the creation, fall, redemption, &c., which he had preached in Whitwell and Barwick churches, and which he had intended for the press. To this work the editor prefixed a sketch of his father's life and character.