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 logue of Manuscripts’ (1697, ii. 33–4, 203–6), and he drew up ‘the very accurate but too brief’ index to that work. In February 1695–6 he obtained, through Charlett's influence, the post of assistant in the Bodleian Library at a salary of 12l. per annum. At the end of that year he received a special gift from the library of 10l., and in the beginning of 1700 a donation of 15l. ‘for his pains about Dr. Bernard's books.’ This second contribution was for selecting from Bernard's printed books such as were suitable for purchase on behalf of the library. The selection led to an angry difference with Thomas Hyde, D.D., the head librarian, which was, however, soon composed, and in 1698 Hyde wished Wanley to be appointed as his successor. But he had no degree, and without one he was ineligible. About 1698 he was preparing a work de re diplomatica (Thoresby Letters, i. 305, 355). The account of the Bodleian Library in Chamberlayne's ‘State of England’ (1704) is by him (, Collections, i. 130).

During 1699 and 1700 Wanley was engaged for George Hickes [q. v.] in searching through various parts of England for Anglo-Saxon manuscripts (Letters of Eminent Literary Men, Camden Soc. xxiii. 283), and this led to his drawing up the catalogue of such manuscripts published in 1705 as the second volume of the ‘Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus’ of Hickes. The dedication (dated 28 Aug. 1704) to Robert Harley, acknowledging the benefits received from him, was written in English and translated into Latin by Edward Thwaites [q. v.] Wanley had been introduced by Hickes to Harley, on 23 April 1701, with the highest praise for ‘the best skill in ancient hands and manuscripts of any man, not only of this … but of any former age’ (Portland MSS. in Hist. MSS. Comm. 15th Rep. iv. 16). This introduction and dedication later on procured Wanley's advancement.

Wanley desired in December 1699 to be deputy-librarian to Bentley at the king's library, but this was denied him (Letters from the Bodleian Libr. i. 99). The post of assistant to the secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, offered to him through the influence of Robert Nelson, on 16 Dec. 1700, with a salary of 40l. per annum, was ‘thankfully accepted.’ He was promoted on 5 March 1701–2 to be secretary, with an annual salary of 70l. (, Minutes of S. P. C. K. pp. 98–9, 117, 172), and he retained the post until on or about 24 June 1708. Three letters from him relating to the society are printed in Nichols's ‘Illustrations of Literature’ (i. 816–19), and to promote its objects he translated from the French J. F. Ostervald's ‘Grounds and Principles of the Christian Religion’ (1704, 7th edit. 1765).

The manuscript report of Wanley, Anstis, and Matthew Hutton on the state of the Cottonian Library (dated 22 June 1703) is prefixed to a copy of Thomas Smith's ‘Catalogue’ (696) of the Cottonian manuscripts in the king's library at the British Museum. It also contains Wanley's manuscript catalogue of the charters in the collection. He communicated to Harley in 1703 the possibility of effecting the purchase of the D'Ewes collections, and they were bought through his agency in 1706 (, British Museum, i. 235–41;, Collections, i. 163). In 1708 he was employed by Harley to catalogue the Harleian manuscripts, and he then became ‘library-keeper’ in turn to him and his son, the second Earl of Oxford. By the time of his death he had finished the collation of No. 2407, and the catalogue remains as a monument of ‘his extensive learning and the solidity of his judgment’ (Harl. MSS. Cat. i. Pref. pp. 27–8).

Wanley was the embodiment of honesty and industry. He was also a keen bargainer, and often secured for his patron many desirable blocks of books and manuscripts. His journal, from 2 March 1714–15 to 23 June 1726, is in Lansdowne MSS. 771–2, and contains many amusing entries. It has never been printed in full, but extracts from it are in Nichols's ‘Literary Anecdotes’ (i. 86–94), ‘Notes and Queries’ (1st ser. viii. 335), ‘The Genealogist’ (new ser. i. 114, 178, 256), and in the ‘Library Chronicle’ (i. 87, 110). Memoranda by him of the prices of books are in Lansdowne MS. 677, but the opening leaves are wanting. He wrote the account of the Harleian Library in Nicolson's ‘Historical Libraries’ (1736, p. vi;, William Oldys, p. 38). Through Harley he became known to Pope, who used to imitate his ‘stilted turns of phraseology and elaboration of manner,’ and addressed two letters to him in 1725 (Works, ed. Courthope, viii. 206–7, x. 115–116). Gay introduced him, ‘from thy shelves with dust besprent,’ into his poem of ‘Mr. Pope's Welcome from Greece.’

Wanley often suffered from ill-health, and died of dropsy at Clarges Street, Hanover Square, London, on 6 July 1726. He was buried within the altar-rails of Marylebone church, and an inscription was put up to his memory. He married, at St. Swithin's, London Stone, on 1 May 1705, Anna, daughter of Thomas Bourchier of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and widow of Bernard Martin Beren-