John Jortin, an English divine and author, born in London in 1698, died in Kensington, Sept. 5, 1770. He graduated at Cambridge in 1719, and was presented by his college with a living in Cambridgeshire; but after his marriage he removed to London, where he soon became widely known as a popular and powerful preacher. He was successively rector of Eastwell in Kent and St. Dunstan's-in-the-East, domestic chaplain to the bishop of London, prebend of St. Paul's, and in 1764 archdeacon of London. He published Lusus Poetici (1722), a small volume of Latin poems, which were greatly admired, and numerous critical and theological works, which display a vast amount of unusual learning. The most important are: "Remarks upon Authors, Ancient and Modern" (2 vols., 1731-'2); "Remarks on Ecclesiastical History" (5 vols., 1751-'73); and "Life of Erasmus " (2 vols., 1758-'60). He also wrote criticisms on Spenser, Milton, Tillotson, and Seneca. - See "Memoirs of John Jortin, D. D.," by John Disney, D. D. (London, 1792).