Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/234

 was re-elected on 12 Feb. 1650 to the second council of state, which lasted till 15 Feb. 1651. He was one of the militia commissioners for Worcestershire on 25 Sept. 1651. When Cromwell assumed the protectorate, in December 1653, he did not, for some unrecorded reason, continue Wilde as chief baron, but appointed William Steele (, Reports). Wilde keenly felt this slight, and there is a letter of complaint from him, dated 12 July 1654, addressed to Whitelocke on his return from the Swedish embassy, who says that it was 'a usual reward in such times for the best services,' and adds that he moved the Protector on Wilde's behalf, 'but to no effect, the Protector having a dislike to the serjeant, but the ground thereof I could not learn ' (Swedish Embassy, ii. 461). He remained out of judicial employment during the remainder of Oliver Cromwell's life, and it is probable that he retired to his Worcestershire estate and took part in local affairs. He acted as justice of peace, and was made a commissioner for raising the assessment in the county in 1656.

In Richard Cromwell's parliament, which lasted from January to April 1659, Wilde again served as member for Droitwich, and there presented a petition praying a restoration to his former office as chief baron, and for payment of the arrears of 1,300l. due to him for his salary. The former was refused, but the latter was granted (, Diary, iv. 390). On the return of the Rump parliament, on 7 May 1659, he resumed his place as a member, and on 16 June following the house ordered that Lord-chief-baron Wild (sic) and other justices go the circuit. He was restored by parliament to his former post of chief baron on 17 Jan. 1659-60 (, Memorials, ed. Henry Reeve, p. 673) ; but the king returned in May, and appointed Sir Orlando Bridgeman [q. v.] in his place. In consequence of his having assisted the lords in several committees of the Convention parliament, Wilde escaped further question, and, absolved by the Act of Indemnity, he retired to his house at Hampstead, where he died in 1669. He was buried at Wherwell, Hampshire, the seat of Charles West, lord De la Warr, who had married Wilde's only daughter and heiress, Anne (, Peerage, i. 287, ii. 166, v. 24). Wilde's wife was Anne, eldest daughter and coheir of Sir Thomas Harries, bart., M.P., serjeant-at-law, of Tong Castle, Shropshire. Wilde's character has been variously judged ; Whitelocke describes him as learned in his profession, but of more reading than depth of judgment, and as executing his office with diligence and justice. Clarendon calls him an infamous judge, and Burton speaks of his tiresome speeches.

[Cal. State Papers, Dom.; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Masson's Life of Milton; Foss's Judges of England; Nash's History of Worcestershire; Visitation of Worcestershire; Williams’s Worcestershire Members.]  WILDE, THOMAS, (1782–1855), lord chancellor, born in Warwick Square, Newgate Street, London, on 7 July 1782, was second son of Thomas Wilde, attorney, of London and Saffron Walden, Essex, by his wife Mary Ann, born Knight. He was uncle of Lord Penzance and younger brother of Sir John Wilde, D.C.L., who was called to the bar in 1805, was judge-advocate from 1818 to 1823 of New South Wales, and chief justice from 1827 (being then knighted) of the Cape of Good Hope, of which he was also from 1854 president of the legislative council until his death, leaving issue, on 13 Dec. 1859.

Wilde was educated at St. Paul's school, which he entered in 1785 and quitted in 1796 to be articled to his father. He was admitted attorney in 1805, and for some years practised as such on his own account; but in March 1811 he entered himself at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 7 Feb. 1817, having already for two years practised as a certificated special pleader. Wilde had none of the personal advantages which heighten the effect of oratory. He was thick-set and of no great stature; his features were irregular, his voice was unmusical, his delivery monotonous. He had even an impediment of speech, which he evaded rather than overcame by the use of synonyms, but he had no lack of nervous English; and his mastery of the technicalities of pleading, his connection and experience, joined to great natural talent and equal industry, rendered his success only a question of time. Retained in 1820 for the defence of Queen Caroline during the progress through parliament of the bill of pains and penalties, he readily surmounted the prejudice with which he was at first received by Brougham and Denman, and distinguished himself in cross-examination. The celebrity thus early gained opened the way to an extensive common-law practice. In 1824 he was made serjeant-at-law (13 May), and in Trinity term 1827 he was advanced to the rank of king's serjeant.

On 31 May 1831 Wilde was returned to parliament in the whig interest for Newark-on-Trent. This seat, which he carried only on the fourth contest, he lost at the general election of December 1832, but recovered on