Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/317

  to her with a long inscription in the church of Stratford-le-Bow; and on 26 Nov. 1689 married Catharine, daughter and coheir of Nicholas Charlton, a London merchant. He settled in Charterhouse Square, and never passed a night out of the house there until his death.

Wollaston now led a retired life, and devoted himself to writing treatises on philological and ecclesiastical questions. He burnt many towards the end of his life; but thirteen fragmentary treatises which accidentally escaped are recorded in his life. He published the paraphrase of Ecclesiastes in 1691, but afterwards desired to suppress it. He privately printed in 1703 a Latin grammar for the use of his family. His one important work was the ‘Religion of Nature Delineated.’ It was privately printed in 1722, and published in 1724 (when Franklin was employed as a compositor). Ten thousand copies were sold ‘in a few years,’ and it went through many editions. He left a few fragments in continuation. His health had long been weak; and an accident hastened his death on 20 Oct. 1724. His wife had died on 21 July 1720. Both were buried at Great Finborough, Suffolk, where he had an estate; and inscriptions written by himself were placed in the church. His eldest son, William, lived at Finborough, and represented Ipswich in the House of Commons in two parliaments (from January 1731 until 1741); and his grandson, a third William Wollaston, was elected for the same borough in 1768, 1774, and 1780. Another grandson, [q. v.], is noticed separately.

Wollaston was a valetudinarian and rather querulous, as appears by his autobiography. He admits that ‘natural affection is a duty,’ but thinks that he rather ‘overacted his part’ towards his brothers. His relatives probably disagreed with this; but he seems to have been a good husband and father, and is said to have been lively in conversation and willing to be serviceable to his friends. He lived with strict regularity and became much of a recluse. The ‘Religion of Nature’ is a version of the ‘intellectual’ theory of morality of which Samuel Clarke was the chief contemporary representative. One peculiarity is the paradoxical turn given to the doctrine by the deduction of all the virtues from truth. To treat a man as if he were a post is to tell a lie, and therefore wrong. In the main, however, it is an able illustration of the position, and Wollaston had considerable authority as a moralist during the century (see, Religious Thought in England, ii. 338 n.) He appears to have ceased to act as a clergyman, and his rationalism led to suspicions of his orthodoxy. He was occasionally confounded with the deist [q. v.], who was at the same college.

Portraits of Wollaston are at Shenton and at the master's lodgings at Sidney-Sussex College. A miniature portrait of him (as a young man) was in the possession of the Rev. Henry Wollaston Hutton, Vicars' Court, Lincoln. In 1732 Queen Caroline placed a marble bust of Wollaston, along with those of Newton, Locke, and Clarke, in her hermitage in the royal garden at Richmond. The bust itself has disappeared, but there exists a mezzotint engraving of it by J. Faber.



WOLLASTON, WILLIAM HYDE (1766–1828), physiologist, chemist, and physicist, third son of [q. v.] and his wife, Althea Hyde, was born at East Dereham, Norfolk, on 6 Aug. and baptised on 8 Aug. 1766. [q. v.] was his brother. He went first to the private school of a Mr. Williams at Lewisham for two years, and then to Charterhouse on 13 June 1774; was on the foundation, and left the school on 24 June 1778. On 6 July 1782 he was admitted a pensioner of Caius College, Cambridge, was a scholar from Michaelmas 1782 to Christmas 1787, proceeded M.B. in 1788 and M.D. in 1793. He was appointed a senior fellow at Christmas 1787, and retained his fellowship till his death; he was also Tancred student, held the offices of Greek and Hebrew lecturer, and was repeatedly appointed to make the Thruston speech. During his residence in Cambridge he became intimate with [q. v.], the astronomer royal for Ireland, and [q. v.], and studied astronomy with their assistance. On 7 Feb. 1793 he was proposed, on 9 May 1793 elected, and on 6 March 1794 admitted F.R.S. His certificate was signed by his uncle, the elder [q. v.], Hon. [q. v.], Sir [q. v.], his father, and others.

On leaving Cambridge he went as a physician to Huntingdon in 1789 (Record of the