Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/85



Du Bellay's Mémoires, Vertot's Ambassades de Noailles, 1763, 5 tom., and Lettres de Catherine de Médicis, 1880, vol. i.; for his embassy in Scotland see Thorp's Scottish Calendar, vol. i., Bain's Scottish Cal. 1543–65, Teulet's Relations Politiques and Papiers d'Etat (Bannatyne Club), Forbes's State Papers, and Sir James Melville's Memoirs. See also Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1547–80; Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Dasent, 1542–70; Cal. Hatfield MSS. vol. i.; Haynes and Murdin's Burghley Papers; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl. Angl. ed. Hardy; Strype's Works (general index); Gough's Index to Parker Soc. Publ.; Ellis's Original Letters; Cat. Lansdowne, Cotton, and Harleian, and Additional MSS. passim; Cal. Simancas MSS. 1558–67; Stow's Annals; Holinshed's Chron.; Lit. Remains of Edward VI (Roxburghe Club); Troubles connected with the Prayer Book, Machyn's Diary, Chron. Queen Jane, and Hayward's Annals (Camden Soc.); Herbert's Reign of Henry VIII; Hayward's and Tytler's Edward VI; Wright's Life and Times of Elizabeth; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, ed. Pocock; Froude's Hist. of England; Burgon's Life and Times of Gresham; Reliquiæ Wottonianæ; Ascham's Epistolæ; Hasted's Kent, iv. 588, and other genealogical references under .]



WOTTON, THOMAS (d. 1766), compiler of the ‘Baronetage,’ was the son of Matthew Wotton, who kept a bookshop at the Three Daggers and Queen's Head, near St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street. According to [q. v.], the elder Wotton was ‘a very courteous, obliging man’ of the highest character, whose trade ‘lay much among the lawyers.’ Thomas Wotton succeeded to his father's business and carried it on for many years, but retired some time before his death. He was warden of the Stationers' Company in 1754 and master in 1757. Among the works published by him were Rushworth's ‘Historical Collections’ and editions of the works of Bacon and Selden. In 1727 he issued in three small (16mo) volumes his ‘English Baronetage. Being a Genealogical and Historical Account of their Families.’ It is dedicated to Holland Egerton of Heaton, Lancashire, son of Sir John, baronet, of Wrine Hall, Staffordshire. [q. v.] of Halstead, Essex, and [q. v.] of Norfolk had also placed their collections at his disposal; and great assistance had been given by [q. v.], who himself published a baronetage in 1720. The work is divided into five sections, containing respectively an account of the institution of the order by James I, the descents, creations, successions, and public employments of the baronets; correct lists of existing and extinct baronets, exact tables of precedence, and an account of the institution of the order in Nova Scotia and Ireland. An explanatory index of terms in heraldry is appended. In 1741 Wotton published in five octavo volumes a revised and enlarged edition, which is usually erroneously attributed to Collins. In it were incorporated the manuscript notes furnished by Robert Smyth, who had published a volume of corrections and additions. [q. v.], who published three folio volumes on the same subject, also rendered valuable assistance to Wotton in preparing this edition. Letters, notes, and pedigrees furnished to Wotton for his ‘Baronetage’ are in Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 24114–21.

In 1771, after Wotton's death, a further edition of the ‘Baronetage’ was issued in three volumes, under the editorship of Richard Johnson and [q. v.] The copy in the British Museum has manuscript notes by Francis Hargrave. The arrangement of each edition is chronological. Wotton died at Point Pleasant, Surrey, on 1 April 1766.



WOTTON, WILLIAM (1666–1727), scholar, second son of Henry Wotton, incumbent of Wrentham, Suffolk, was born in that parish on 13 Aug. 1666. His father, after seven years at the free school at Canterbury, lived in the household of [q. v.], and was by him trained in Latin and Greek. Casaubon's method seems to have suggested to Henry Wotton the advantage of trying from the beginning to interest children in their studies, and his ‘Essay on the Education of Children’ was published posthumously in 1753.

William could read a psalm when aged four years and six weeks, and from that date his father laboured at his education. He liked reading in big books such as Buck's ‘Cambridge Bible.’ One day a friend called on his father, bringing with him Bucer's ‘Commentary on the Gospel.’ The child looked into the book and tried to spell out the Latin words, and thus became eager to know that language. He worked into it by learning the names of things, and so was soon able to read the gospel of St. John in the Vulgate. After two months at St. John's gospel in Latin his father showed him the Greek Testament, and by five years of age he could read St. John's Gospel through. Two months later he began Hebrew, and soon