WISEMAN, RICHARD. 



WISTAR, CASPAR. 



70S 



1853. Cardinal Wiseman has frequently lectured sine* that time 

 before the literary societies of the Metropolis, and on behalf of 

 public institutions, on various subjects connected with education, 

 history, science, art, and literature. 



WISEMAN, RICHARD, lived in the 17th century; he became first 

 known as a surgeon during the civil wars of Charles I., and was the 

 companion of Prince Charles when a fugitive in France, Holland, and 

 Belgium. He was afterwards a surgeon in the Spanish navy for three 

 years, and returning to England, he was present at the battle of 

 Worcester, where he was made prisoner. He was liberated in 1652, 

 and then took up his residence in London. At the Restoration, 

 Charles did not forget his old companion, and he was made sergeant- 

 surgeon to the king. He was an observant judicious surgeon, and his 

 publications on various diseases were read by the profession with 

 much avidity. In 1676 he collected his various treatises into one 

 volume, and published them with the title, ' Several Surgical Treatises 

 on Tumours, Ulcers, Diseases of the Anus, Scrofula, Wounds, Gun- 

 shot-wounds, Fractures and Luxations, and Syphilis,' 2 vols. 8vo. 

 This work is remarkable for the honesty of the writer, in which, with 

 a single eye to the advancement of medical science, he records every- 

 thing that occurred, whether successful or unsuccessful, in the treat- 

 ment of his cases. He suffered in early life for his attachment to 

 royalty, and he will perhaps be excused on this ground, if his feelings 

 are considered, for having advocated the efficacy of the royal touch in 

 cases of scrofula. His works have always been considered valuable 

 contributions to surgical knowledge, and the two volumes in which 

 they are contained have gone through several editions. 



WISHART, * GEORGE, called the Martyr,' a champion of the 

 Reformation in Scotland, is supposed to have been a son of James 

 Wishart of Pittarrow, justice-clerk duiing the reign of James V. The 

 time of his birth is not known. At the beginning of the 16th century 

 he was master of a grammar-school at Montrose, where he introduced 

 the study of Greek. Whether he ever took orders is a point undeter- 

 mined. He began to diffuse the doctrines of the Reformation at 

 Montrose, but becoming alarmed by the enmity which he roused, he 

 fled to England. He preached the same doctrines at Bristol in 1538, 

 but sterner measures seem to have been there adopted towards him, 

 and he recanted and publicly burned his faggot. In 1543 he was at 

 Cambridge. According to a notice of his character, appearance, and 

 habits at that time by his pupil Emery Tylney, he " was a tall man, 

 polde headed, and on the same a round French cap of the best. 

 Judged of melancholye complexion by his physiognomic, black haired, 

 long bearded, comely of personage, well spoken after his country of 

 Scotland, courteous, lowly, lovely, glad to teach, desirous to learn e, 

 and was well travailed." He is further described as charitable to the 

 poor, and abstinent to the extent of austerity. In July 1543 he 

 returned to Scotland along with the commissioners who had been sent 

 to England to treat for a marriage between Prince Edward and the 

 infant Queen of Scots. Protected by the heads of the Reformation 

 party, he now preached with boldness and fervour in Dundee, Perth, 

 Montrose, and Ayr, creating popular tumults 3 which ended in the 

 destruction of several ecclesiastical edifices, and threatening the 

 authorities with coming vengeance when they interfered with his pro- 

 ceedings. The timidity which attended him while he was an obscure 

 propagator of his opinions, seems, now that he exercised a wide influ- 

 ence on the popular mind and filled a large place in the eye of his 

 countrymen, to have been succeeded by a resolute spirit of defiance 

 and a contempt of danger. 



The view which the impartial narrator must take of Wishart's cha- 

 racter has of late years been materially changed by the discovery of 

 documents affording what is almost conclusive historical proof that he 

 was engaged in plots against Cardinal Beaton's life. This charge, stated 

 by two old Scottish biographical authors, Demp&ter and Dr. George 

 Mackenzie, whose accuracy is justly doubted, was repeated in 1831 by 

 a Roman Catholic historian (Carruthers, ' Hist, of Queen Mary,' p. 40), 

 and has been amply illustrated from original documents by Mr. Tytler. 

 In a series of letters, which show that there were several parties who 

 were prepared to assassinate the cardinal, if they had the direct autho- 

 rity of Henry VIII. to perpetrate the deed, and his promise of protec- 

 tion and reward, one signed by the Earl of Hertford, Holgate, bishop of 

 Landaff, and Sir Ralph Sadler, and addressed to the king, dated 17th 

 April, 1544, has this passage : " Please it your highness to understand, 

 that this day arryved here with me, the erll of Hertford, a Scotishman 

 called Wyshert, and brought me a letter from the Larde of Brunstone, 

 which I sende your highnesse herewith : and, according to his request, 

 have taken order for the repayre of the said Wysshert to your majestie 

 by poste, bothe for the dely vire of such letters as he hathe to your 

 majestic from the said Brunstone, and also for the declaration of his 

 credence, which, as I can perceyve by him, consisteth in two poyntes : 

 one is that the Larde of Graunge, late thesaurer of Scotlande, the Mr. 

 of Rothes, the earl of Rothe's eldest son, and John Charters, wolde 

 attempt eyther t'apprehend or slee the cardynal at some tyme when 

 he shall pass through the Fyflande, as he doth sundrye times to Saint 

 Andrewes," &c. It appears from these letters that Wishart had imme- 

 diately afterwards an interview with Henry, in which he repeated the 

 offer to put Beaton to death. The negociations were continued by 

 Brunston and the Earl of Cassilis, but were not quite satisfactory to 

 cither of them, the king declining to authorise the assassination, or, as 



Sir Ralph Sadler said, " his highness, reputing the fact not mete to be 

 set forward expressly by his majesty, will not seem to have to do in it, 

 and yet not misliking the offer." In the end however the two persons 

 whom Wiahart represented as prepared to commit the murder, Kirk- 

 aldy of Grange and the master of Rothcs, were the actual perpetrators 

 of it. It remains of course a matter of doubt whether George Wishart 

 1 the Martyr ' was the same Wishart who was the vehicle of the propo- 

 sal, but this doubt is much narrowed by the fact that the laird of 

 Brunston was George Wishart's champion and familiar friend. It is 

 believed that Beaton was aware of the plots against his life. Wishart 

 had therefore probably good reason to predict danger to himself, and 

 he was generally surrounded by armed friends, of whom Kuox was 

 one. While in Dundee ho received an invitation from Cassilis and 

 other Protestant barons to hold a disputation in Edinburgh. Repair- 

 ing thither, his friends, probably through timidity, did not meet him. 

 Unprotected however as he was, he preached in the neighbourhood, 

 and then, on the approach of the governor and the cardinal, fled to the 

 laird of Brunston's house, four miles from Edinburgh. Venturing to 

 preach in the town of Haddington, he took refuge with another sup- 

 porter, Cockburn of Ormiston, in whose house he was seized by the 

 cardinal's troops, and conveyed to St. Andrews. He was immediately 

 put on trial for heresy before a special ecclesiastical council ; Arran, 

 the governor, having refused to give the proceeding the countenance of 

 the civil power. He was condemned to be burned at the stake, and 

 the sentence was executed at St. Andrews on the 28th of March 1546, 

 amid the portentous murmurs of the people. 



Among many unfulfilled prophecies traditionally attributed to 

 Wishart was one, that Beaton should soon hang in ignominy from" 

 the same window whence he was witnessing the execution ; and the 

 circumstances above detailed show that Wishart might perhaps have 

 reasonably anticipated such an event without possessing the gift of 

 prophecy. 



(Mackenzie, Lives of Scots Writers, iii. 9-19 ; Tytler, Hist, of Scotland, 

 vol. v.; Lyon, Hist, of St. Andrews, ii 358-366; M'Crie, Life of A'no.r, 

 period ii.) 



WISHART, GEORGE, an ecclesiastic and biographical writer, is 

 said to have been born in Haddingtonshire, iu 1609, and to have 

 studied in the University of Edinburgh. In 1639 he was a clergy- 

 man in St. Andrews, when, refusing to take the covenant, he was 

 deposed from the ministry. On 28th January 1645, he is found 

 petitioning the Scottish parliament as " sometymes at St. Andrews, 

 and laitly at Neucastle, neu prissoner in the comon jayell of Edin- 

 brughe, beging mautinence, since he and his wyffe and 5 children 

 wer lykly to sterve." (Balfour's 'Annals,' anno 1645.) He was 

 several times imprisoned during the dominancy of the Presbyte- 

 rian party. The approach of Montrose's army enabled him to join 

 that commander, to whom he became chaplain. In 1647 he published 

 his history of the wars of Montrose, with the title ' De Rebus sub 

 Imperio Jacobi Moutisrosarum Marchionis, anno 1644 et duobus 

 sequentibus prseclare gestis, Commentarius.' On the execution of 

 Montrose in 1650, this work was hung, in contumely, from his neck. 

 It was reprinted at Paris iu 1648, and acquired a high reputation for 

 the elegance of its Latinity. It was translated into English in 1652, 

 and the author is supposed to have been the translator. There is in 

 the Advocates' Library a manuscript continuation of the work to the 

 death of Montrose, which has not been published in the original 

 Latin ; but a translation of it was appended to a translation of the first 

 part in 1720, and both were re-trauslated and published by Ruddiman 

 in 1756. A new edition of this translation was published at Edin- 

 burgh in 1819. After his patron's death, Wishart became chaplain to 

 Elizabeth, the Electress Palatine. At the Restoration he was made 

 rector of Newcastle, and in 1662 was consecrated bishop of Edinburgh. 

 Though he had himself suffered persecution, and in his writings vin- 

 dicated the cruel acts of Montrose, he is said to have been averse to 

 the intolerant policy of Charles II.'s government, and to have recom- 

 mended leniency to the Covenanters. Ho died in 1671. (Keith, 

 Catalogue of the Bishops of Scotlaiid, ; Lyon, History of St. Andrews, 

 ii. 10-12.) 



WISTAR, CASPAR, was born at New Jersey, United States of 

 North America, where his father was a glass manufacturer, in the year 

 1760. His father was a German emigrant, and a member of the Society 

 of Friends, of which society Wistar remained a member. He was edu- 

 cated in Philadelphia at the school founded by William Penu, and 

 commenced his medical education in that city. In 1782 he received 

 the degree of Bachelor of Medicine in Philadelphia, and afterwards 

 came to pursue his studies iu Europe, and graduated in medicine at 

 Edinburgh in 1786. His thesis was entitled 'De Animo demisso.' 

 He returned to his own country in 1787; and when the college at 

 Philadelphia was revived, he was appointed professor of chemistry and 

 physiology, and ho delivered the course of lectures on these subjects 

 in 1789 and 1790. He was afterwards appointed to share the chairs 

 of anatomy and surgery with Dr. Shippen, at whose decease the 

 whole duties of these chairs devolved on him. He was successively 

 appointed physician and consulting physician to the dispensary, and 

 physician to the hospital, of Philadelphia. In 1816 he was elected 

 president of the American Philosophical Society. He published 

 several papers on medicine and anatomy : amongst others, ' Remarks 

 on the Fever of 1793,' and 'Memoirs on the Ethmoid Bone,' and ' on 



