Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/143

 's friend, the Earl of Southampton, ‘then upon the Spanish voiage with my Lord of Essex.’ The original translation does not appear to be extant, but about 1617 Wilson made a copy, extant in British Museum Additional MS. 18638, which he dedicated to, chancellor of the exchequer, and afterwards Lord Brooke [q. v.]; he remarks that Brooke's friend Sir [q. v.] ‘did much affect and imitate’ ‘Diana,’ and possibly Wilson took part in publishing some of Sidney's works, for on 12 April 1607 he asked Sir Thomas Lake to further his petition for the privilege of printing ‘certain books [by Sidney] wherein myself and my late dear friend Mr. Golding have taken pains’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom., Addenda, 1580–1625, p. 495; cf. art. ). He is possibly also the Thomas Wilson whose name appears at the foot of the first page of the manuscript ‘Booke on the State of Ireland,’ addressed to Essex by ‘H. C.’ (? [q. v.]) in 1599 (Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1598–9, p. 505); owing to its being a dialogue ‘between Peregryn and Silvyn,’ the names of Edmund Spenser's two sons, it has been considered the work of the poet himself [cf. art. ].

In spite of these indications of a connection with Southampton and Essex, Wilson, fortunately for himself, remained faithful to the Cecils, and during the later years of Elizabeth's reign he was constantly employed as foreign intelligencer. On 27 Feb. 1600–1 Sir Robert Cecil wrote to him: ‘I like so well many of your letters and discourses to the lord treasurer [Buckhurst] that I wish you not only to continue the same course of writing to him, but also to me’ (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1598–1601, p. 600). Among these discourses was one begun on 1 March following ‘on the state of England A.D. 1600,’ giving the claims of twelve competitors for the crown, ‘with a description of this country and of Ireland, the conduct of the people, state of the revenue and expenses, and the military and naval forces;’ it is extant in the Record Office (State Papers, Dom., Elizabeth, vol. cclxxx.) In December he was at Florence, and he speaks of being employed on various negotiations with the Duke of Ferrara, the Venetians, and other Italian states (ib. James I, cxxxv. 14; for details of his movements, see his diary in ib. xi. 45). He was obviously a thorough Italian scholar (cf. Addit. MS. 11576, ff. 2 sqq.), and the main object of his residence in Italy during 1601–1602 was to ascertain the nature and extent of the Spanish and papal designs against England (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1601–3, pp. 127, 234). He returned to England during the winter, and was at Greenwich on 12 June 1603 (Cotton. MS. Calig. E. x. 359;, Orig. Letters, iii. 201–2), but early in 1604 he was sent to reside as consul in Spain (Cal. State Papers, Dom. James I, cxxxv. 14; , Mem. ii. 45; , Progr. James I, i. 475). He was at Bayonne in February 1603–4 (Cotton. MS. Calig. E. xi. 78–9), and remained in Spain until the arrival of the Earl of Nottingham and Sir [q. v.] as ambassadors in 1605.

On his return to England Wilson definitely entered the service of Sir Robert Cecil, who leased to him a house adjoining his own, called ‘Britain's Burse,’ in Durham Place, Strand (see sketch in State Papers, Dom., Charles I, xxi. 64). He took a considerable part in supervising the building of Salisbury's house in Durham Place and also at Hatfield, in the neighbourhood of which he received from Lord Salisbury the manor of Hoddesdon. In 1605 he is said to have been returned to parliament for Newton (?Newtown, Isle of Wight); the official return does not mention this by-election, but that Wilson sat in this parliament is probable from the frequent notes of its proceedings with regard to such matters as scutages and the ‘post-nati’ with which he supplied the government. He also kept the minutes of the proceedings of the committee for the union of England and Scotland, and made a collection of the objections likely to be urged against the union in parliament. About 1606, on the surrender of Sir [q. v.], Salisbury procured for Wilson the post of keeper of the records at Whitehall, with a salary of 30l.; he also obtained the clerkship of imports, worth 40l. a year, but lost it when Suffolk became treasurer in 1614.

Wilson was a zealous and energetic keeper of the records, and made many suggestions with regard to them, which, if they had been adopted, would have saved subsequent students an infinity of trouble. One of these was the creation of an office in which chartularies of dissolved abbeys and monasteries should be transcribed and kept for the use of ‘searchers,’ and to prevent needless litigation for want of access to title-deeds (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1611–18, p. 508). Another, inspired more by self-interest, was the creation of an office of ‘register of honour,’ to be filled by himself, so as to obviate frequent disputes for precedence among knights and their ladies. He also suggested the publication of a gazette of news