Compton was a man even more remarkable than Sprat. He was the youngest son of Spencer, Earl of Northampton. On leaving the university, he went to the Continent, for the purpose of perfecting himself in the modern languages. After the restoration of Charles II., he became cornet of a regiment of horse; but soon resigned his commission, and devoted himself to the service of the church. He successively became Canon-commoner of Christ-Church College, Rector of Cottenham, Master of St Crosse’s Hospital, Canon of Christ-Church, Bishop of Oxford, Dean of the Royal Chapel, and finally Bishop of the diocese of London. He was intrusted with the education of the two princesses, Mary and Anne, whom he also afterwards married to the Princes of Orange and Denmark; and their firmness in the Protestant religion was in a great measure owing to his instructions. For his steadfast opposition to Popery, and for refusing to become an instrument of ecclesiastical tyranny among the clergy of his diocese, he was suspended, by James II., from his Episcopal office, his name was struck from the list of the Privy Council, and he was deprived of his office as Dean of the Royal Chapel. His suspension was the reason why Samuel Wesley was ordained a deacon by the chameleon-like Dr Sprat. On the invasion of the Prince of Orange, he was restored to his Episcopal functions; he performed the ceremony of crowning King William and Queen Mary; was appointed one of the Commissioners for revising the Liturgy; and laboured with much zeal to reconcile Dissenters to the Established Church. His spirit of moderation made him unpopular with the clergy, and, in all probability, checked his further promotion. He died in the same year as Bishop Sprat, at the age of eighty-one. Through the whole of a long life, he was exemplary in his moral conduct, and displayed the manners of a gentleman. He was a warm friend, a generous patron, a respectable writer, a faithful bishop, but a dull and inanimate preacher. Such were the two prelates who ordained Samuel Wesley.