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WHITTINGTON, ROBERT. 



WICQUEFORT, ABRAHAM DE. 



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greatest temporal blessings that could be given him in his kingdom." 

 He died on the 29th of February 1603-4, in the seventy-third year of 

 his age, and was buried in the parish church of Croydon. 



(Strype's Life and Acts of John Whitgift, D.D. ; Life of Whitgift, 

 by Sir George Paule, 8vo, 1699 ; Fuller's Church History of Britain,) 



WHITTINGTON, ROBERT, is the author of several grammatical 

 treatises which were long used in the schools, and of whicli the fullest 

 account is given in Dibdiu's edition of Ames's ' Typographical Anti- 

 quities.' He calls himself on the title-pages a native of Lichfield 

 (Lichfeldieneis), and he appears to have been born there about 1480. 

 He was educated by the eminent grammarian John Stanbridgo, in the 

 school then attached to Magdalen College, Oxford ; and, after having 

 taken priest's orders, he set up a grammar-school of his own about 

 1501, probably in London. All that is known of the rest of his 

 history is that he was alive in 1530. But, besides his school-books, 

 Whittington wrote also Latin verse with very superior elegance ; and 

 he is remembered in modern times principally as the last person who 

 was made poet laureate (poeta laureatus) at Oxford. This honour he 

 obtained in 1513, on his petition to the congregation of regents of the 

 university, setting forth that he had then spent fourteen years in 

 studying and twelve in teaching the art of grammar (which was 

 understood to include rhetoric and poetry or versification), and 

 praying that he might be laureated, or graduated, in the said art. 

 These academical graduations in grammar, on occasion of which, as 

 "YVartou states, "a wreath of laurel was presented to the new graduate, 

 who was afterwards usually styled poeta laureatus" are supposed to 

 have given rise to the appellation as applied to the king's poet, origi- 

 nally styled the king's versifier (versificator), who seems to have been 

 merely a graduated grammarian or rhetorician employed in the service 

 of the king. Whittington, as had been customary, on obtaining his 

 laureateship, composed a hundred Latin verses, which were published 

 by being stuck up on the great gates of St. Mary's church. After this 

 he used to style himself on his title-pages not only master of grammar 

 (grammatices magister), but chief poet of England (protovates Anglice). 

 The title however conferred no academical rank, and it is known that 

 Whittington was afterwards admitted to the degree of Master of Arts. 

 Whittington's Latin verse has been highly praised. Of his ' Epigram- 

 mata' (printed by De Worde in 1519, and of the greatest rarity), being 

 long addresses to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, Sir Thomas More, 

 and the poet Skelton (who, like himself, had been made poeta laureatus 

 at Oxford in 1489), Warton says, "Some of the lines are in a very 

 classical style, and much in the manner of the earlier Latin Italian 

 poets." (< Hist, of Eng. Poet.,' ii. 441, &c.) 



WHITWORTH, the name of an ancient Staffordshire family, which 

 has produced two diplomatists of some note. 



CHARLES WHITWORTH, eldest son of Richard Whitworth, of Blower- 

 pipe in Staffordshire, was born at Aldbaston about the time of the 

 Revolution, and died in 1725, at London. He was an attache of Mr. 

 Stepney at several courts, and in 1702 was himself appointed resident 

 to the Diet at Ratisbonne. In 1704 he was named envoy to the court 

 of Russia ; and in 1710 he was again sent to that court with the title 

 of ambassador extraordinary, to propitiate Peter the Great, irritated 

 by the arrest of his ambassador in the public streets of London at the 

 suit of some tradesman. Whitworth was subsequently plenipoten- 

 tiary to the Diet of Augsburg and Ratisbonne in 1714 ; envoy extra- 

 ordinary and plenipotentiary to the King of Prussia in 1716; envoy 

 extraordinary to the Hague in 1717; again plenipotentiary at Berlin 

 in 1719 ; and representative of Great Britain in the character of 

 ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary at the congress of Cam- 

 bray in 1722. He was created Baron Whitworth of Galway in 1721 

 by George I. Lord Whitworth retired into private life in 1724, and 

 died in the ensuing year, without issue. His ' Account of Russia as it 

 was in the year 1710 ' came into the hands of Horace Walpole, and 

 was printed by him at the Shrewsbury pres?. In the preface Walpole 

 mentions that many volumes of Lord Whitworth's state letters and 

 papers were in the possession of his relations. 



CHARLES WHITWORTH, grandson of Francis, a younger brother of 

 the preceding, who was M.P. for Minehead in Somersetshire, surveyor- 

 general of the woods and forests, and secretary of the island of Barba- 

 dos, was born at Leybourne in Kent in 1754. His father, Sir Charles 

 (also M.P. for Minehead), sent him to be educated at Tunbridge school, 

 and on his leaving that place procured him a commission in the Guai-ds. 

 How he came to exchange the military for the diplomatic service does 

 not appear, but in 1786 we find him sent to the court of Poland as 

 minister plenipotentiary. 



In 1788 Whitworth was sent as envoy extraordinary and minister 

 plenipotentiary to Russia, where he remained till 1800. Whitworth 

 acquired and retained to the last a mai'ked ascendancy over the 

 councils of the czarina Catherine II. After her death (February 1795) 

 his troubles began. Paul I., resolute to undo everything that his 

 mother had done, refused to ratify the treaty she had concluded with 

 England immediately before her death. The patience and address of 

 Whitworth were however at last successful : in 1797 Paul ratified a 

 treaty of commerce with England. In December 1797 Whitworth 

 signed a provisional treaty by which the Czar agreed to take part in 

 the coalition against France ; and in June 1799 a definitive treaty to 

 the same effect. At this time the English minister stood so high in 

 the good graces of the wayward, emperor that Paul requested 



George III. to create him a peer (he had received the ribbon of the 

 Bath in 1793). The request was complied with, but by the time the 

 despatch announcing that he had been created an Irish baron arrived, 

 Paul had quarrelled with Whitworth, and ordered him to quit his 

 dominions. 



In 1800 Lord Whitworth was sent to Copenhagen to terminate 

 amicably the differences arising out of the capture of the Danish 

 frigate Freya and her convoy by English men-of-war. Ho concluded 

 a convention with Count Bernstorff on the 29th of August. On the 

 7th of April 1801 he married the Duchess-Dowager of Dorset, and 

 remained unemployed till the latter end of 1802, when, having been 

 previously sworn a privy councillor, he was appointed ambassador 

 extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the French government. He 

 remained at Paris till the 13th of May 1803. Little was effected or 

 could be effected by this mission : the struggle between Bonaparte 

 and England had already become a struggle of life or death, and both 

 parties felt it. The most striking incident during Lord Whitworth's 

 embassy was the rude reception he experienced from Bonaparte in full 

 court at the Tuilerics. 



Lord Whitworth did not after his return from Paris hold any diplo- 

 matic appointment; although a tour which he made to Paris and 

 Naples in 1819, with the Duchesa of Dorset and a numerous and 

 rather ostentatious suite, gave rise to some gossip about secret missions. 

 When the country was threatened with invasion from France he raised 

 and clothed a battalion of infantry composed of 600 men. In March 

 1813 he was made a lord of the bedchamber; on the 14th of June 

 following he was created a British peer by the title of Viscount Whit- 

 worth of Aldbaston ; and in August he succeeded the Duke of Rich- 

 mond as viceroy of Ireland. In January 1815, on the enlargement of 

 the order of the Bath, he was made one of the twelve civil knights 

 grand-crosses ; and . in November he was advanced to the dignity of 

 Baron Aldbaston and Earl Whitworth. He resigned the lieutenancy 

 of Ireland in 1817, and was succeeded by Earl Talbot. He died (with- 

 out issue) on the 13th of May 1825. 



WICHMANN, JOHANN ERNEST, physician, was born at Hanover 

 on the 10th of May 1740. After having received his early education 

 at the Lyceum of Breme, he went in 1759 to Gb'ttingen, and com- 

 menced the study of medicine under Brendel. He graduated in 1762, 

 and presented as his thesis a paper on the use of certain poisons in the 

 treatment of the bites of rabid animals. After graduating he visited 

 Paris and London. This journey had a great influence on his future 

 career. The influence of English practice on his views became remark- 

 able in his writings, which are free from much of the speculation 

 with which German writers abound. He returned to Hanover in 

 1764, and commenced practice. It was not long before his merits 

 were recognised, and on the death of Weilhoff he was appointed 

 court-physician. Wichmann published several works on various 

 departments of medicine, the most remarkable of which is his ' Ideen 

 zur Diagnostic,' published at Hanover in 1794, in 3 vols. 8vo. This 

 work went through several editions, and is possessed of great practical 

 merit. He wrote several other smaller works on various diseases and 

 their treatment, which were all published at Hanover. He died on 

 the 12th of June 1804. 



WICKLIFFE, or WICLIF. [WTCLIFFE.] 



WICQUEFORT, ABRAHAM DE, was a native of Holland, and was 

 born, it is commonly stated, at Amsterdam, in 1598; but he early left 

 his country and took up his residence in France. In 1626 he was 

 appointed by the elector of Brandenburg his resident at the French 

 court; and he held that post till 1658, when, at the instance of 

 Cardinal Mazarin, he was arrested by a lettre-de-cachet, and thrown 

 into the Bastile, on a charge of sending secret intelligence to the 

 government of the United Provinces, and also of being a spy in the 

 pay of other foreign governments. He remained in confinement for a 

 year, and was then released and ordered to leave France. On this he 

 passed over to England, and thence returned to his native country, 

 where the Pensionary De Witt, with whom he had in fact carried on a 

 clandestine correspondence, procured him the appointment of histo- 

 riographer to the States, or, according to other accounts, of secretary- 

 interpreter for foreign despatches. Possibly he held both these offices, 

 or they may have formed only one office. At the same time the duke 

 of Bruuswick-Liinenburg appointed him his resident at the Hague. It 

 was De Wicquefort's ill fortune however to fall a second time under 

 the suspicion of betraying his trust; in March 1676, he was arrested 

 and placed in confinement at the Hague, on the charge of holding 

 secret correspondence with the enemies of the States, and in November 

 following was condemned to perpetual imprisonment and to the 

 forfeiture of all his effects. He remained in custody till 1679, when he 

 effected his escape by exchanging clothes with one of his daughters, 

 and took refuge at the court of the Duke of Zell. Quarrelling however 

 with that prince because he would not exert himself with more zeal to 

 procure the reversion of the sentence passed upon him by the Dutch 

 government, he left him in 1681, and is supposed to have died tho 

 year after. 



In that age of profligate policy De Wicquefort was in much request 

 for his dexterity and accomplishments (and the more perhaps from the 

 belief of his unscrupulousness and want of principle) ; but he seems to 

 have enjoyed no reputation on any other account. He is respectably 

 known however in a literary capacity. His first publication appears to 



