Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/184

  he thought it wise to comply, and withdrew to Frankfort.

In January 1798 Wickham returned to England and was appointed under-secretary of state for the home department, which office had been promised him some years before and kept temporarily occupied during his service in Switzerland. It was a busy and important post. His correspondence with Castlereagh during the Irish rebellion fills a considerable part of the first two volumes of the ‘Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh,’ and portions of it are also to be found in Ross's ‘Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis.’ Wickham was also private secretary to the Duke of Portland. He returned as envoy to the Swiss cantons and the Russian and Austrian armies in June 1799, while still retaining his post at home, and was entrusted with very extensive powers of negotiating treaties and arranging supplies for the anti-revolutionary forces. He travelled viâ Cuxhaven, Hanover, and Ulm, and reached Switzerland on 27 June. His wife narrowly escaped capture at the battle of Zürich, and was announced in the Paris papers to have fallen into the hands of the French. He was engaged abroad until, early in 1802, he was appointed on Abbot's advice chief secretary for Ireland. He was then sworn of the privy council, and came into parliament for Heytesbury. Emmett's rising was the chief event of his term of office in Ireland, but the position was distasteful to him, and he resigned early in 1804. He would have been sent in 1802 and 1803 as minister either to Berlin or Vienna, but for the objection made by those courts to his nomination on the ground of his being personally obnoxious to the French government. He accordingly retired from active service on a pension of about 1,800l. per annum. This was the conclusion of Wickham's public career, except that for a short time (February 1806 to March 1807) he was a member of the treasury board under Lord Grenville, and went on one or two missions to Germany in connection with subsidies. In 1807 he retired into the country. He was made honorary D.C.L. at Oxford in 1810, and died at Brighton on 22 Oct. 1840. His portrait by Füger belongs to the family (Cat. Third Loan Exhib. No. 35).

He had one son, (1789–1864), who was born on 19 May 1789, was educated at Westminster and Christ Church; having been called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn (13 May 1817), he was appointed receiver-general of Gibraltar. He was principal private secretary to Althorp when chancellor of the exchequer, and from 1838 to 1848 was chairman of the boards of stamps and taxes. He published with his cousin, [q. v.], a ‘Dissertation on the Passage of Hannibal over the Alps’ (2nd edit. London, 1828), and died in Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, on 27 Oct. 1864 (Gent. Mag. 1864, ii. 794;, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886). His son, William Wickham (1831–1897), was M.P. for the Petersfield division of Hampshire from 1892 to 1897.



WICKLOW, (d. 1786). [See under, 1638-1710.]

WICKWANE or WYCHEHAM, WILLIAM (d. 1285), archbishop of York, was canon and chancellor of York when on 4 Feb. 1262 he was instituted to the rectory of Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire. [q. v.], archbishop of York, having died in April 1279, Wickwane was elected by the chapter to succeed him on 22 June; he received the king's assent on 4 July, and went to the pope for his pall. Nicolas III set aside the election by the chapter, but as of his own will consecrated him to York at Viterbo on 26 Aug. On landing in England about 29 Sept. he caused his cross to be borne before him in the province of Canterbury. [q. v.], the archbishop, ordered that no food should be sold to him on pain of excommunication, and his official and his men had a struggle with Wickwane's party and broke the cross. He was enthroned at York at Christmas. In 1280 he began a visitation of his province, and was specially careful in visiting its monasteries. On coming to Durham he was refused admission into the cathedral priory, the gate being forcibly kept against him. Standing in the road, he pronounced excommunication against the monks; appeals were made to Rome, and the dispute lasted during the remainder of his life. He again visited Durham in person in 1283, and was about to excommunicate the prior in the church of St. Nicolas, when some of the younger citizens raised a tumult; he was forced to flee, one of his palfrey's ears was cut off, and he is said to have been in danger of his life. On 8 Jan. 1284 he translated the body of St. William [see ], archbishop of York, in