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 elsewhere in and near Oxford,’ besides voluminous notes from various ‘Leiger books’ belonging to monasteries in the neighbourhood. At Oxford he seems to have made the acquaintance of William Burton, historian of Leicestershire, who acknowledged aid rendered him by Wyrley. In later years they made together a survey of churches in Leicestershire. On 15 May 1604 Wyrley was appointed Rouge Croix pursuivant at the College of Arms. He gained the reputation there of ‘a knowing and useful person in his profession.’ He died at the college on 16 Feb. 1617–18, and was buried in St. Bennet's Church near St. Paul's Wharf.

Some portion of Wyrley's collections of arms and monumental inscriptions made in Leicestershire and other counties, as well as in churches in and near London, was acquired by Ralphe Sheldon of Weston, Long Compton, Warwickshire, who is said to have bequeathed Wyrley's manuscripts, on his death in 1684, to the College of Arms. The only manuscript there now identified as being of Wyrley's composition is a small quarto volume numbered Vincent MS. 197, and entitled ‘Church Notes of Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Northampton, York, Rutland, and Staffordshire.’ Some notes by Wyrley on Staffordshire genealogy are incorporated in the edition of Erdeswicke's ‘Survey of Staffordshire’ which was edited by Thomas Harwood in 1820 (another edit. 1844).



WYSE, THOMAS (1791–1862), politician and diplomatist, born on 9 Dec. 1791, was the eldest son of Thomas Wyse of the manor of St. John, co. Waterford, by his wife Frances Maria, daughter and heiress of George Bagge of Dromore, co. Waterford. The family claim descent from a Devonshire knight, Andrew Wyse, who is said to have accompanied Strongbow to Ireland in 1171, and to have received from his leader land in the neighbourhood of Waterford, a small portion of which is still held by his descendants. The manor of St. John, which includes property within the city walls, was originally held by the Wyses from the priory of St. John, founded by King John outside Waterford. On the dissolution of the monasteries, the manor and all its rights and the property in the city were given in fee simple to Sir William Wyse, then attached to the court of Henry VIII. In the reign of Philip and Mary, Sir Andrew Wyse, a younger member of the family and prior of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, was appointed by Philip ambassador from Spain to Naples. The family, in addition, owned extensive estates throughout the south of Ireland and near Dublin, but, in consequence of their steadfast adherence to the catholic faith, these were in great part lost by successive confiscations under James I, Charles I, and Cromwell. The influence of the family in Waterford was nevertheless great, and they gave to the city from 1400 onwards no fewer than thirty-three mayors and other municipal officers; Francis Wyse paid for the citizens out of his own resources the fine of 1,500l. imposed by William III during his stay in Ireland in 1690.

At the age of nine Thomas, heir to the family estates, was sent with his younger brother George to the newly founded jesuit college at Stonyhurst in Lancashire. There he rapidly developed that ardent love of literature and the classics which formed a marked trait of his character through life. The penal law which excluded catholics from Trinity College, Dublin, had been repealed by the Irish parliament in 1793. Accordingly, Thomas and his brother George after nine years at Stonyhurst entered that university with Richard Lalor Sheil, [q. v.], [q. v.], and others who had been their school companions. Here Thomas soon distinguished himself, carrying off the chancellor's prize and many others, and holding first rank in the Historical (Debating) Society which had just been revived. Even then he took a keen interest in politics, spoke at meetings of the Catholic Association, and was chairman of one in 1810. He graduated B.A. in 1812.

On leaving the university Wyse went to London with his band of friends who were studying for the law; and, merely for his own improvement—not intending to follow the profession—he was entered for a year as a student at Lincoln's Inn on 19 June 1813. When the continent was open to travellers after Waterloo, Wyse spent some time in Paris, where he made many noteworthy acquaintances, ultimately pursuing his journey with Ball and Woulfe across the Alps in 1816. Love of art and of classical scholarship, to which he now added a study of Italian literature, led him to spend two years in Rome and Florence. He then joined a party to the east, where another two years were profitably spent in visits to Athens, Constantinople, Egypt (up to the second cataract), Palestine, the Greek Islands, and Sicily. [q. v.] accompanied the party as artist,