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was taught by his virtuous mother the rudiments of the English tongue, and of the Christian religion, and sent, as soon as it was proper, to the free-school of Wells, and there instructed in due course in the Latin and Greek languages. About the age of fifteen he was judged fit for the university, and admitted of Clare-hall, Cambridge, under the tuition of Dr. Milner. Here, it is supposed, his acquaintance commenced with Mr. Wentworth, afterwards earl of Strafford, which grew into the strictest friendship and fraternal affection. Mr. Wandesforde is said to have made great progress at college in the arts and sciences, and the knowledge of things natural, moral, and divine; but applied himself closely at the same time to the study of the classics, and particularly to oratory, as appears from his subsequent speeches in parliament. At the age of nineteen he was called from the university by his father's death, to a scene of important business, the weighty regulation of family affairs, with an estate heavily involved; his necessary attention to which prevented him from pursuing the studies preparatory to the church, which he had originally chosen as a profession, and now relinquished.

After this, a general acquaintance with the laws of his country seems to have been his leading acquirement, and hence, when he became a representative in parliament, he was nominated one of the eight chief managers in the impeachment of the duke of Buckingham. The account of Mr. Wandesforde's share in that transaction, as given by Rushworth, is much to the credit of his moderation and prudence. In the new parliament, which met March 17, 1628, he made a conspicuous figure, and acted a truly constitutional part, supporting the privileges of the people when attacked, and when these were secured by a confirmation of the petition of right, adhering to his sovereign. About 1633, it was proposed by Charles I. to send Mr. Wandesforde ambassador to Spain; but this honour was declined, from his not wishing to engage in any public employment. Soon after, however, when his friend lord Wentworth was fixed on to go as lord-deputy to Ireland, Mr. Wandesforde was persuaded to accompany him as master of the rolls, from motives of personal regard. He arrived at Dublin in July 1633, where he built a new office of the rolls at his own cost. In 1636 he was made one of the lords justices of Ireland, in the absence of lord Wentworth, and knighted. Retiring to his seat at Kil

dare, he completed his book of "Instructions to his Son," which bears date Oct. 5, 1636. He soon after sold Kildare to lord Wentworth, and purchased the estate of Castlecomer, where he established a manufactory for cottons, and founded a colliery. In 1640 he was appointed lord-deputy in the place of lord Strafford, and gave such satisfaction to the king by his conduct in that high station, that he was created baron Mowbray and Musters, and viscount Castlecomer. On the receipt of the patent, however, he ex- `claimed," Is it a fit time for a faithful subject to appear higher than usual, when his king, the fountain of honours, is likely to be reduced lower than ever?" He therefore ordered the patent to be concealed, and his grandson was the first who assumed its privileges.

His lordship died Dec. 3, 1640, and his loss was universally lamented, says Lodge, being a man of great prudence, moderation, integrity, and virtue. Lord Strafford, on hearing of his death, is said to have uttered the following apostrophe: "I attest the eternal God, that the death of my cousin Wandesforde more affects me than the prospect of my own; for in him is lost the richest magazine of learning, wisdom, and piety, that these times could boast."

His lordship was reported by his daughter to have read over the whole Bible yearly, and to have made "great remarks upon it." These remarks, with other "Collections in Divinity," are said to be lost, and so it was for some time surmised, were his valuable "Instructions to his Son," an excellent manual of piety and wisdom, till a duplicate copy was discovered which had been privately transcribed, and from which the work was printed under the care of the author's great-great-grandson, Thomas Comber, LL. D. in 1777, 12mo, with a second volume in 1778, containing memoirs of the life and death of lord-deputy Wandesforde.1

WANLEY (HUMPHREY), a literary antiquary of great learning and accuracy, was the son of the rev. Nathanael Wanley, some time vicar of Trinity-church in Coventry. This Nathanael Wanley was born at Leicester in 1633, and died in 1680. Besides the vicarage of Trinity-church, it is probable that he had another in Leicestershire, from the following title-page, Vox Dei, or the great duty of self-reflection upon a man's own wayes, by N. Wanley, 1 Memoirs by Dr. Comber.-Park's edition of the Royal and Noble Authors.

M. A. and minister of the gospel at Beeby in Leicestershire," London, 1658. He was of Trinity-college, Oxford, B. A. 1653, M. A. 1657, but is not mentioned by Wood. The work which now preserves his name is his "Wonders of the Little World," 1678, fol. a work to be classed with Clark's "Examples," 2 vols. fol. or Turner's "Remarkable Providences," containing a vast assemblage of remarkable anecdotes, &c. many of which keep credulity on the stretch. As these were collected by Mr. Wanley from a number of old books, little known, or read, it is not improbable that such researches imparted to his son that taste for bibliographical studies which occupied his whole life. At least it is certain that Humphrey, (who was born at Coventry, March 21, 1671-2, and was bred first a limner, and afterwards some other trade), employed all his leisure time, at a very early period, in reading old books and old MSS. and copying the various hands, by which he acquired an uncommon faculty in verifying dates. Dr. Lloyd, then bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, sent him to Edmund-hall, Oxford, of which Dr. Mill was then principal, whom he greatly assisted in his collations of the New Testament. Hearne says, that during his stay in this hall, he attended but one lecture, which was in logic, which he swore he could not comprehend. Dr. Charlett, master of University-college, hearing of Wanley's attention to matters of antiquity, induced him to remove to his own college, which he soon did, residing at the master's' lodgings, who, says Hearne, "employed him in writing trivial things, so that he got no true learning." He certainly acquired the learned languages, however, although it does not appear that he attended much to the usual course of. academic studies, or was ambitious of academic honours, as his name does not appear in the list of graduates. By Dr. Charlett's means he was appointed an under-keeper of the Bodleian library, where he assisted in drawing up the indexes to the catalogue of MSS. the Latin preface to which be also wrote. Upon leaving Oxford, he removed to London, and became secretary to the society for propagating Christian knowledge; and at Dr. Hickes's request, travelled over the kingdom, in search of Anglo-Saxon MSS. a catalogue of which he drew up in English, which was afterwards translated into Latin by the care of Mr. Thwaites, and printed in the "Thesaurus Ling. Vet. Septen." Oxon. 1705, fol. He was soon after employed in arranging the

valuable collections of Robert earl of Oxford, with the appointment of librarian to his lordship. In this employment he gave such particular satisfaction, that he was allowed a handsome pension by lord Harley, the earl's eldest son and successor in the title, who retained him as librarian till his death. In Mr. Wanley's Harleian Journal, preserved among the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum, are several remarkable entries, as will appear by the specimens transcribed below *.

Mr. Wanley remained in this situation until his death, which happened July 6, 1726, and was occasioned by a dropsy. He was twice married, first to a widow, with several children; the second time, only a fortnight before his death, to a very young woman, to whom he left his property, which was considerable.

About 1708, he first began to compile the catalogue of lord Oxford's MSS. and proceeded as far as No. 2407 of the present printed catalogue. Throughout the whole, he shews great learning and judgment, and his strictures are so just, that there is much reason to lament his not having lived to put the finishing hand to a work, for which he was in every respect so well qualified. This, which was said of Wanley, in the preface to the first edition of the printed catalogue in 1762, may still be repeated, without any disrespect to his successors, because it is to be feared that much useful information was lost by his death.

*This journal, which begins in March 1714-15, and is regularly continued till within a fortnight of his death, is kept with all the dignity as well as the exactness of the minutes of a public body. For instance, "March 2, 1714-15, present, my lord Harley and myself. The secretary related, that the reverend and learned Mr. Elstob deceased some time since; and that he having seen Mrs. Elsteb his sister, and making mention of the two MSS. which Mr. Elstob had borrowed from the library (being 34. A. 16. and 42 A. 12.), she said, she would take all due care to see them restored. - My lord Harley expressing some compassion on the unexpected decease of Mr. Urry of Christ-church, the secretary shewed that two MSS. borrowed for his use by the present bishop of Rochester (Dr. Atterbury), while dean of Christchurch, are not yet restored; and that

he had a note under the bishop's hand for the same: My lord undertook to manage this matter."-" July 21, 1722. This day it pleased the most illustrious and high-born lady, the lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles Harley, to add to her former bounties to me, particularly to a large silver tea-pot formerly given to me by her noble ladyship, by sending hither (to this library) her silversmith with a fine and large silver tea-kettle, lamp and plate, and a neat wooden stand as in all duty and gratitude bound, I shall never cease from praying Almighty God to bless her and all this noble family with all blessings temporal and eternal."" August 4, 1725, Mr. Pope came, and I shewed him but few things, it being late."There are many more, and some very curious, extracts, from this journal in Mr. Nichols's Literary Anecdotes."

Besides these labours, Wanley published a translation of Ostervald's "Grounds and principles of the Christian religion, explained in a catechetical discourse for the instruc tion of young people." This was revised by Dr. Stanhope, and printed at London, 1704, 8vo. Hearne, who seems to have had a pique at Wanley, represents him as an unsteady, capricious man; and of this there are some evidences in his own journal. Hearne likewise asserts that he was imprudent and dissipated, but for this we have no other proof,. and if he left considerable property, he had not been unwise in that respect. There is an original picture of him in the Bodleian library; another, balf-length, sitting, in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. A mezzotinto print of him was scraped by Smith, in 1718, from a paint ing by Hill, 1

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WANSLEB (JOHN MICHAEL), a learned German, was born in 1635, at Erfort, in Thuringia, where his father was minister of a Lutheran church. After having studied philosophy and theology at Konigsberg, he put himself under Job Ludolf, in order to learn the Oriental tongues of that celebrated professor. Ludolf taught him the Ethiopic among others; and then sent him at his own expence into England to print his "Ethiopic Dictionary," which came out at London in 1661. Ludolf complained of Wansleb. for inserting many false and ridiculous things, and afterwards gave a new edition of it himself. Dr. Edmund Castell was at that time employed upon his "Lexicon Heptaglotton," and was much gratified to find in Wansleb a man who could assist him in his laborious undertaking; he received him therefore into his house, and kept him three months. Wansleb was no sooner returned to Germany, than Ernest the pious, duke of Saxe-Gotha, being informed of his qualifications, sent him to Ethiopia: the prince's design was, to establish a correspondence between the Protestant Europeans and Abyssines, with a view to promote true religion among the latter. Wansleb set out in June 1663, and arrived at Cairo in Jan. following. He employed the remainder of the year in visiting part of Egypt; but the patriarch of Alexandria, who has jurisdiction over the churches of Ethiopia, dissuaded him from proceeding to that kingdom, and sent his reasons to Ernest in an Arabic

Nichols's Bowyer.-Letters, from Eminent Persons, 1813, 3 vols. 8vo. Preface to the Harieian Catalogue.-Dibdin's Bibliomania.

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