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Anthony Wood and the Catholics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2015
Abstract
Anthony Wood (1632–1695), the Oxford biographer and historian, was accused of being a ‘papist’ from the early 1670s until his death on 29 November 1695. These accusations were given credence because Wood had many Catholic friends and acquaintances; had a genuine affection for manuscripts and monuments of the pre-reformation past; wrote bio-bibliographies of many noteworthy Catholics who were graduates of Oxford colleges or were associated with the university; had a view of the reformation that Gilbert Burnet, later the bishop of Salisbury, saw as ‘unseemly’; and never joined any campaign against Catholics before or after James II reigned in Great Britain. This essay deals with Wood's relationships with Catholics and his attitude towards Catholicism.
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1 Anthony Wood often signed his name, pretentiously, ‘Anthony à Wood’, after 1661. He signed his will simply ‘Anthony Wood’, the form used here. T. A. Birrell introduced the term ‘bio-bibliography’ and explains the importance of Wood's contributions to bibliography, ‘Anthony Wood, John Bagford and Thomas Hearne as Bibliographers’, Pioneers in Bibliography, ed. Myers, R. and Harris, M. (London 1988): 25–9.Google Scholar Any merit in this essay derives from the kind and rigorous mentoring of Tom Birrell.
2 For the memorandum, see Kiessling, N., The Life of Anthony Wood in his Own Words (Bodleian Library, Oxford, 2009): 16.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Life of AW; and The Life and Times of Anthony Wood, ed. Andrew, Clark, v vols (Oxford Historical Society, 1891–1900): iii 499f.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as L&T. For Tanner's letter, L&T iii 502; in a later letter to R. Rawlinson, he wrote that Wood received the ‘Sacrament on his death bed with seemingly great devotion’, ibid., note I.
3 Life of AW, 24; L&T i 129–131.
4 Wood's stand on religion took place in 1647 when he grudgingly signed a loyalty oath. Later, when the document was in the university archives, he altered his name to ‘Andrew Woodly’. For the document, see Life of AW, 29–9; L&T i 144; and for the alteration, A. Gustard, Notes & Queries, liv (2007): 83–5.
5 For the peevish Edward, Life of AW, 33.
6 For Burton and Guillim, Life of AW, 42; for Dugdale, 49.
7 For Stanton Harcourt, L&T i 220.
8 These were often in separate but contiguous chapels, in dedicated aisles, in parish graveyards, or even in chancels. Throughout England generations of Catholic families were known to support a local parish church or participate in church functions. The ‘Great’ Ralph Sheldon presumably had certain rights of presentment which allowed the burial of his heart and entrails in the Long Compton church chancel and his body to be interred in a separate chapel in the Beoley church. Yarnton, Oxon., for example, had a dedicated aisle, L&T iii 73.
9 Wood's record of his family is now MS. Wood empt. 26, pp. 1, 62; Clark transcribed it, L&T v 3, 17–8. For Jermin, L&T ii 49; for Settle, see Kiessling, N. The Library of Anthony Wood (Oxford Bibliographical Society, 2002),Google Scholar entry 5849. Hereafter cited as LAW, followed by an entry number.
10 On papists, L&T ii 93. For other comments, Life of AW, 7, 65, 126; Wood twice referred ‘cabal of priests/papists at Somerset House’, in his almanac diary, L&T iii 172, 176. For the saints, Life of AW, 126. The proctor was David Thomas of New College, L&T ii 125.
11 Fell had to be convinced that Wood was the person to undertake this huge project, and by the mid-1660s he came to recognize that Wood was qualified for the task, one which he very much wanted to see completed. For Wood's first visit to London, and for G. Sheldon and his third visit to London, Life of AW, 104–106, 116; and L &T ii 109–111, 168.
12 For Cressy and Great Tew, Ath. Ox. ii 567: (for Ath. Ox. see next note) and in his vignette at iii 1011. For Cressy's books, LAW 2056–7. For Mallet, L&T ii 554. For the letter, MS. Wood F 40, f. 408. For Cressy on Prynne, A then. Ox. iii. 853–4. Wood saw the 1668 ed. of Cressy's Church History of Brittany.
13 For Rogers, MS Wood F 45, f. 23, and John, Fendley, ‘William Rogers and his Correspondence’, Recusant History xxiii (1997): 289.Google Scholar John Theyer asked Rogers to deliver a letter to Wood in 1665. Wood, with Timothy Nourse, visited Theyer in 1668 to look at, and borrow, manuscripts, L&T ii 143. For Wood's source for e.g., John Sergeant and Abraham Woodhead in the Athenæ Oxonienses… To which are added the Fasti (hereafter cited as Ath. Ox.), ed. P. Bliss (London, 1813–20), iii 1159 and iv 672, see Fendley, 288. In one case Rogers gave Wood wrong information about a book he believed to have been written by Thomas White, but Wood was in contact with Sergeant, and Sergeant sent Wood a letter, dated 29 Nov. 1687, in which he stated that he had written the book. For Roger's mss. and books, Fendley 311–316; and LAW 2181, 2871, 4235(7), and 6721. For Rogers, Ath. Ox., Fasti ii 352, ‘he was seized’ for distributing the pamphlet but soon released.
14 For a comparison of Davenport and Cressy, see Ath. Ox. iii 1224; L&T ii 169; and Life of AW, 117 (Wood wrote the second version of his autobiography in the third person); for the dinner, ibid., 121.
15 Ath. Ox. ii 390 and ii 864, and Taylor, iii 782. In Oct. 1670 Wood loaned him a manuscript by Thomas of Eccleston, L&T ii 203. Letters are in MS. Wood E 4 and F 41: Wood took material from Davenport's own letters for his portrait in Ath. Ox. iii 1224, see Dockery, J. B., Christopher Davenport. Friar and Diplomat (London, 1960): 79 and 108.Google Scholar See the plate after p. 48 for a letter, Davenport to Wood, 13 Aug. 1670.
16 For the first meeting, Theo, Bongaerts, The Correspondence of Thomas Blount (Amsterdam, 1978), 97,Google Scholar a letter from Blount to Wood, 20 Aug. 1669. For the 1660 items, LAW 50–51, 1009–1010, 2852; Wood received his first gift of a book from Blount in May 1670, LAW 6556. For the letters, including 26 sent in 1671 alone, see Bongaerts, p. 92. For the herald's position, letters 96–7, and 104. For verification of inscriptions earlier supplied by Blount himself, Elias Ashmole and John Aubrey, see letter 1a, p. 98, and letter 73, note 3, p. 278.
17 Animadversions ‘would not have been published without Wood's help’, Bongaerts, 51–3 and letters 33–6, 39, 40. For Lloyd, L&T ii 197. For the dictionaries, letter 87a, 115a. For information on Oxbridge, Bongaerts, 52 and letter 88. For the Ath. Ox. iii 140 and iv 761.
18 Timothy Nourse may have been Wood's ‘cozen’, L&T ii 189. Amsterdam Court was a passage between 25 and 26 High Street, now beneath a Brasenose quadrangle. See also L &T ii 165. For Worcester, Life of AW, 125; the event was written about also by Thomas Blount in Boscobel, see LAW 1015. For the apparent meetings at Weston, L &T ii 321; for the obital books, Ath. Ox. ii 357–8; and see also L &T iv 119.
19 For the inscribed book, LAW 5831, and Life of AW, 125–6. Wood was invited to Weston during the summer 1673, but could not accept. Balme, M., Two Antiquaries (Durham, 2001), 35–6.Google Scholar
20 For Wood's catalogues of the books and mss., see L&T ii 321. For the number of mss., ‘about 300’, see Ath. Ox. ii 218; Clark stated that there are 230 mss. listed in Wood's catalogue, see L &T ii 321, notes 2 and 3. Wood's salary is suggested by his comment when his visit of 4 July to 6 November 1679 was cut short: ‘So there was 5 li lost’. L &T ii 467.
21 L &T ii 467 and 493. A third such subterfuge may have occurred on 14 Sept. 1682 when Wood went to Weston and did not find Sheldon; be had absented himself to his home at Skilts.
22 For Veron, see LAW 6317; for the funeral, L&T iii 97–8 and note 8, above. For Sheldon's burial at Long Compton (where Cressy also was buried, Ath. Ox. iii 851), see note 8, above. For Wood's last visit to Weston, LT iii 487f.
23 The commonplace book is now in MS. Tanner 102. For Cressy's friends, Ath. Ox. iii 1013. The Sherburne visit to London was not recorded by Clark, L&T v 79. Wood made at least 13 other trips to London. For the 6 Oct. meeting, The poems and translations of Sir Edward Sherburne, ed., Frans Jozef van Beeck (Assen [Van Gorcum], 1961), xxxviii. For an analysis of Sherburne's large library, Birrell, T. A. in The Book Trade and its Customers, 1450–1900, ed. Hunt, A., Mandeibrote, G., and Shell, A. (Winchester, 1997).Google Scholar For the Sherburne letters, MS. Wood F 44, ff. 221–303 and L&T iv 229.
24 The Mitre is still located on High Street just west of Lincoln College. For the quotation, Life of AW, 126; L&T ii 227.
25 For his brother's report, L&T ii 275. For the first meeting with Aubrey, Life of A W, 108; and for the letter of 7 August 1669, Balme, Two Antiquaries, 24. Wood initiated the quarrel when he was under attack for certain statements in the Ath. Ox., for which Aubrey was the source.
26 Aubrey in this letter also told Wood that he might find refuge in the Catholic colony of Maryland, ibid., 31–2, 34. For more on the retired, solitary and melancholy Wood, see Kiessling, N., ‘The Autobiographies of Anthony Wood, Bodleian Library Record, xix (Oct. 2006): 194ff.Google Scholar
27 For Aubrey's question, Balme, Two Antiquaries, 55, and a reference to Wood's answer, 56. Bathurst was vice-chancellor from 1673–6. For the dinner, 6 Feb. 1674, Life of A W, 134; L&T ii 281.
28 For Fell's advice, see above. For Wilkinson, MS. Wood F 45, f. 128r, 16 December 1671, and for Wood's kindly portrait, AO iv 285. Fell's most egregious editing concerned the portrait of Thomas, Hobbes, see LAW, xxxii, and 3616–7, 6684–5.Google Scholar
29 For Burnet, L&T ii 449, 455–6 and note; for Wood's final rebuttal of Burnet, see A Vindication of the Historiographer, written by E. D. (i.e., Anthony Wood) (London, 1693), 9, and note 39, below; and Beddard, R. A., History of the University of Oxford, iv (1997): 865.Google Scholar For Grimstone and Burnet, Ath. Ox. iv 439; L&T ii 449; Life of AW, 139–40. Another ‘popish’ book was Obadiah Walker's edition of John Spelman's Life of Alfred. See Beddard, HUO, iv 864.
30 L&T ii 414, 423–425; Life of AW, 141.
31 Beddard, HUO, iv 863–5. Life of AW, 141.
32 Bongaerts 13, and MS. Wood F 39, f. 343. Bongaerts, 143, letter 71, 30 Oct. 1673, and note 3. Blount referred to Reeve as Wood's friend ‘ad Pontem’ because he lived near the bridge at Grandpont. For Reeves and Nourse, LT ii 275–6.
33 L&T ii 433 and ii 428. For Joyner's letters to Wood, see L&T iv 229.
34 Wood's judgments, see LAW 913 and 5276 and especially his notes on Robert Lister, the principal of Magdalen Hall, in LA W 2379. For executions of Jesuits, see LAW 570, 1429, 3040, 3164, 4140, 6558–6562. For the popish plot, see LAW 321, 322, 926, 1033, 1080, 2744, 2748, etc. In two catalogues of the plot, LAW 1599–1601, he made extensive bibliographical notes. In LAW 1601 he noted, by ‘habeo’, that he owned ten of the items listed in the catalogue, all now in the composite volume, Wood 426.
35 For the trials, LAW 6383, and for the speeches, 3887 and 5274.
36 L&T iii 291.
37 For Tonge and Shippen, L&T ii 422. The last letter was about the Catholic polymath, Nicholas Hill, who died in 1610. See Beddard, R. A., ‘The Source of Anthony Wood's Life of Nicholas Hill’, Archives 29, no. 111 (Oct. 2004): 1–11;Google Scholar and MS. Wood F 45, ff. 77–8.
38 For the early attacks, L&T iii 368, 396, 398. For Clarendon, see the account of the trial, L&T iv 1–50.
39 He regained access to the university and the library and was also pardoned, see Life of AW, 156 and L&T iii 485. Two other defensive pieces are a predated introduction, ‘To the Reader’ to the Athenæ, and his autobiography. See Kiessling, ‘The Autobiographies of Anthony Wood’, 190–194. For the publication date of the Vindication, L&T iii 420 and LAW 6695 and note 29, above. For the charge of Burnet, see Vindication, 18–19.
40 For Eynsham, see Life of AW, 55. For Dorchester, L&T i 223; Abingdon, Life of AW, 92; the Minchery and Sandford, L&T i 386, 403and iii 343; Pershore, L&T ii 342; Fairford, Life of AW, 63; and Godstow, L&T i 330, 340–3, 347; iii 491. The last quotation is from the Vindication, 29.
41 Wood's conservative tendencies can be seen in his annotations in LAW 5426, an attack upon Laud by William Prynne. There Wood refers to Laud as ‘that blessed Martyr Dr. Will. Laud Archb. of Canterb’. Wood owned over a dozen items written by or about Laud (LAW 4045–4056, 5426–7, 5430). Laud's flirtation with the Catholic church is well-known and did not at all disturb Wood. See Dockery, 53–4. In Ath. Ox. ii 652, Wood approved of Robert Burton, the author of The Anatomy of Melancholy, for a conservative practice: ‘to the parishioners… he always gave the sacrament in wafers’.
42 Other gifts of books came from Christopher Davenport, Richard Reeve, Frances Sheldon (Ralph's niece and a maid of honour), George Sheldon, Marie Sheldon (Ralph's niece and a maid of honour), Ralph Sheldon of Steeple Barton, and John Vincent. To Sheldon in LAW, Appendix III, p. 689 should be added 941–2 and 5874–5; and 5346 should be 5347; to Bourne should be added 1011, 1013, and 3197 (see Bongaerts, 103). For Blount's and Davenport's gift, LAW 2115 and 2179.
43 Reeve's books are LAW 980 and 6353. For the parting, L&T ii 280. For the attempt to convert Wood, L&T ii 401. For Wood's inquiries, L&T in 295, 320, 350, and Ath. Ox. iv 386. Reeve also gave Wood at least one valuable ms., L&T ii 215.
44 For Wood's printed items on the subject of Catholics, see LAW, Appendix VII, p. 704; to the 413 listed, please add: 50, 51, 299, 363, 987, 1012, 1452, 1453, 2008, 2177, 2178, 2181, 2182, 2871, 3056, 3249, 3300, 3663, 3925, 4235, 5201, 5222, 5577, 5585, 5729, 5928, 1618, 6027, 6202, 6556, 6557, 6721, 6722. For Vade, LAW, xvi, note 17; L&T ii. 181–3 and ii. 461, 464.
45 Wood gave Timothy Nourse a more positive portrait than he did in his almanac diary; he marginalized his valuable but mildly erratic informant, William Rogers. See Ath. Ox. iv 448 (and LT ii 390), and Ath. Ox. Fasti ii 352, and text at note 13, above.