Charles Henry Wharton was born in St. Mary's County, Md. , the son of Jesse and Anne (Bradford) Wharton. His parents were Roman Catholics, and his early days were spent on the family plantation, "Notley Hall, " which Lord Baltimore had presented to Charles's grandfather.
A school mistress, and later a master whom he describes as "very competent, " gave him his first instruction. In 1760 he was sent to Saint-Omer, France, where he entered the Jesuit college established there in the latter part of the sixteenth century after Catholic education in England was prohibited. It was noted for its excellent teaching of the classics and literature, and for its strict religious discipline. Although Wharton afterwards renounced the doctrines of the Jesuits, he never regretted that at an early period of his life they had planted in his mind many of the great principles of morality and Christian piety. When the Parliament of Paris, in 1762, banished the Jesuits from France, the boys of Saint-Omer's accompanied their masters to Bruges, where Wharton continued his studies. In 1770 he was a student in the English college of the Jesuits at Liège.
By 1773, he was a professor of mathematics there. In the meantime, September 19, 1772, he had been ordained priest. Sometime between 1773 and 1777 he became chaplain to the Roman Catholics at Worcester, England. He had not lost interest in his native land and doubtless would have returned before he did, had it not been for the outbreak of the Revolution. One of his incidental occupations while at Worcester was the writing of A Poetical Epistle to His Excellency George Washington, Esq. from an Inhabitant of the State of Maryland, to Which is Annexed, A Short Sketch of General Washington's Life and Character. It was printed in Annapolis in 1779, and reprinted in London the following year "for the charitable purpose of raising a few guineas to relieve in a small measure the distresses of some hundreds of American prisoners, now suffering confinement in the gaols of England. " The "Short Sketch" annexed was by John Bell and was the first attempt at a life of Washington. The most significant event of Wharton's residence in Worcester, however, was a change in his religious feelings and views, an experience so painful that it nearly wrecked him physically. A natural disposition to put doctrines to the test of logic and history, and contact with Protestants who displayed the finest fruits of the spirit, led him to make a painstaking study of the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers. This forced him to the conclusion that the assumed infallibility and authority of the Church and many of its practices were without divine sanction, and that he could not consistently remain in its communion. In the spring of 1783, apparently, he returned to Maryland, for on June 10 of that year he took the oath of allegiance to the government of that state. The following year he published A Letter to the Roman Catholics of the City of Worcester from the Late Chaplain of that Society. Stating the Motives Which Induced Him to Relinquish Their Communion, and Become a Member of the Protestant Church. A tolerant and able statement, it called forth from Rev. John Carroll, later archbishop, a distant relative of Wharton, an equally able if somewhat less kindly reply - An Address to the Roman Catholics of the United States (1784). This Wharton answered in a vigorous and well-documented pamphlet, A Reply to an Address (1785). After remaining for a time at his ancestral home, Wharton became rector of Immanuel Church, New Castle, Del. From this time on he was one of the leading Episcopal clergymen of the country. A deputy to the first General Convention in 1785, he was appointed one of the committee to prepare a constitution for the Church, and to make the changes in the liturgy needful to bring it into harmony with the American Revolution and the constitutions of the respective states. In 1791-92 he officiated at the Swedish Church, near Wilmington, Del. His health was never the best and for some years he lived on his estate at "Prospect Hill" in the same vicinity. In 1798 he became rector of St. Mary's Church. Burlington, N. J. , where he remained for the rest of his life. During this period he was a member of almost all the General Conventions. In 1801 he was elected president of Columbia College, New York, and accepted the office, but for some reason almost immediately resigned. He was one of the founders and principal editors of the Quarterly Theological Magazine and Religious Repository (1813 - 17). On July 21, 1786, the American Philosophical Society elected him a member. Wharton was one of the best-trained and most learned Episcopal clergymen of his day. He made no parade of his attainments, however, either privately or in his preaching, which emphasized sound doctrine, moral integrity, and Christian charity. Poor health and absence of personal ambition probably account for his not occupying a prominent ecclesiastical or educational position. His mental equipment appears most conspicuously in his controversial writings, which, in addition to those mentioned, included A Short and Candid Inquiry into the Proofs of Christ's Divinity; in Which Dr. Priestly's History of Opinions Concerning Christ, is Occasionally Considered (1791); A Short Answer to "A True Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church Touching the Sacrament of Penance . " (1814); Some Remarks on Dr. O'Gallagher's "Brief Reply" to Dr. Wharton's "Short Answer" . " (1817). The last two and all the letters in the Carroll controversy were reprinted in 1817 under the title A Concise View of the Principal Points of Controversy between the Protestant and Roman Churches. They also appear, together with sermons and other writings, in The Remains of the Rev. Charles Henry Wharton, D. D. , edited by George W. Doane. For his spiritual no less than for his intellectual qualities, Wharton was held in high esteem. "I do not recollect, " wrote Horace Binney, "a more gentlemanly figure, or a more benevolent or trust-worthy countenance".
He was twice married: first, to Mary Weems of Maryland, who died June 2, 1798, and in memory of whom he wrote An Elegy; second to Ann, daughter of Chief Justice James Kinsey of New Jersey; he had no children.
