The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [815]
Wilson, Florence, see Volusene, Florence
Wilson, Revd Thomas (1747–1813), schoolmaster: 854–5
Wilson, Thomas (c. 1727–99), fellow of Trinity College, professor of natural philosophy, Dublin: 257
Windham, William (1750–1810), politician; friend of Burke, Fox and Johnson; pallbearer at S.J.’s funeral; Chief Secretary to the Irish viceroy, Lord Northington (1783); Secretary at War (1794–1801); resigned as an MP in 1807 over the Catholic question: 252, 426, 585, 715, 866, 873, 874, 887 and n. b, 903, 916, 953, 960–61, 965, 989 n. a, 992, 995, 997, 999 and n. a
Wirgman, Peter, the younger (1718–1801), London jeweller: 698
Wirtemberg, Prince of: 356
Wise, Revd Francis (1695–1767), librarian and antiquary; under-keeper of the Bodleian Library (1719); keeper of the university archives (1726); fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1749); numismatist and catalogued the coins in the Bodleian Library (1750); undertook some relatively important work in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Latin fields; visited by S.J. and J.B. (1754): 147–52, 154, 158, 159, 173
Woffington, Peg (1714?–60), actress; developed a considerable repertory in Dublin before migrating to perform at Covent Garden in 1740; played Lady Anne to Garrick’s Richard III at Drury Lane in 1742, establishing a famous partnership; visited by S.J. and Fielding; stayed at Drury Lane through the actors’ protest over Fleetwood’s management; a comic virtuoso, continually seeking to extend her repertory and improve her art: 666
Wolsey, or Wolson, Florence, see Volusene, Florence
Wood, Anthony (1632–95), antiquary; author of the Historia et antiquitates Univ. Oxon. (2 vols., 1674) and, consequently, regarded as the then definitive historian of the University of Oxford; close friend of Ashmole and Aubrey; followed up with a biographical register of the university’s celebrated authors, Athenae Oxonienses (1691); dry, brusque and factual style with little pretence to literary merit; work has proved indispensable to modern publications such as the Dictionary of National Biography: 39, 854
Woodhouse, James (1735–1820), ‘the poetical shoemaker’: 327
Wotherspoon, John (d. 1776), see Index of Subjects: Apollo Press
Woty, William (1731?–91), poet and literary editor; first collected works, The Shrubs of Parnassus (1760), subscribed to by S.J., J.B. and Smollett; largely a satirist; apparently had a strong interest in the London theatre: 203
Xenophon (fl. 5th century bc), soldier, adventurer, historian and author: 59, 570, 722
Xerxes, king of Persia after Darius; led a series of massive military expeditions against Greece, which ultimately ended in failure after decisive Greek victories at Salamis and Plataea, and concerning which we derive ‘our knowledge’ overwhelmingly from Herodotus: 631
Yalden, Dr Thomas (1670–1736), poet and Church of England clergyman; Tory and High Churchman; chaplain of Bridewell Hospital, London (1713); included in S.J.’s Lives of the Poets although a fairly unremarkable poet, contributing a few pieces to Tonson’s Miscellanies but little else: 724
Yonge, Sir William (d. 1755), politician; firm Whig; a commissioner of Irish revenue (1723-4); a lord of the Treasury (1724-7, 1730–35); a lord of the Admiralty (1728); Secretary at War (1735–46); fellow of the Royal Society (1748); one of the most effective speakers on the ministerial side in the Commons and close lieutenant of Walpole: in, 346
Young, Arthur (1741–1820), agricultural reformer and writer; founder of the magazine the Universal Museum (1761), discontinued on S.J.’s advice; author of A Tour in Ireland (1780), numerous other agricultural works, upon which reputation he established the Annals of Agriculture (1784–1815); Travels in France (1793), observing much of the activity around the Revolution, became of greater historical value; helped to establish the government board of agriculture (1793), becoming its secretary; the best-known agricultural reformer and publicist of his time: 610
Young, Dr Edward (1683–1765), writer; patronized by Steele and Addison; author of the seven satires