an attorney’ and ‘the agility of Colonel Bodens’ (an unwieldy man who could scarcely move), and as ‘deserting Grenville's cause when he was hardly cold in his grave’ (letter, 9 Jan. 1771, in ed. 1812, iii. 310–11). He was appointed a commissioner on the board of trade in January 1771, the ‘keeper of his Majesty's private roads and guide to his royal person in all progresses’ in January 1772, and he was under-secretary of state from June 1771 for the northern department. These appointments he held for the rest of his life. He died unmarried and intestate on 26 May 1772; his brother, William Whately, a banker in Lombard Street, London, administered to the effects.
Whately was the author of ‘Observations on Modern Gardening, illustrated by descriptions’ [anon.], 1770; 4th ed. 1777; 5th ed. 1793; new ed. with notes by Horace, earl of Orford, and plates of Wollet [sic], 1801. Selections from it were made for Fosbroke's ‘Wye Tour; or Gilpin on the Wye, 1826.’ A French translation by François de Paul Latapie, with additions, was published at Paris in 1771 (Walpole, Letters, v. 321, 324); its main idea was adopted by a M. Morel in France (Nichols, Illustrations of Lit. vii. 545–6), and the Abbé Delille in ‘Les Jardins,’ 1782 (third chant) spoke of him as his master. Archbishop Whately, in the later issues of his edition of Bacon's ‘Essays,’ appends a note to essay xlvi. ‘On Gardens,’ in praise of his uncle's treatise, but somewhat exaggerates in asserting that he ‘first brought into notice Thomson's “Seasons.”’ George Mason, in his ‘Essay on Design in Gardening’ (1795), omits no opportunity of censuring his volume; but Alison, in his ‘Essays on Taste,’ gives it the highest praise.
Whately left unfinished at his death an essay called ‘Remarks on Some of the Characters of Shakespeare’ [Macbeth and Richard III]. It was published by his brother, the Rev. Joseph Whately, in 1785, as ‘by the author of “Observations on Modern Gardening,”’ was reissued with his name as author, in 1808, and edited by Archbishop Whately, who calls it ‘one of the ablest critical works that ever appeared,’ in 1839. It had been his intention to analyse eight or ten of Shakespeare's principal characters in the same manner, but he was interrupted by other business. His essay provoked from J. P. Kemble a sharp answer in ‘Macbeth Reconsidered’ [anon.], 1785, and ‘Macbeth and King Richard III. By J. P. Kemble,’ 1817. In the autumn of 1811 Whately's work attracted the notice of Charles Knight, and ultimately led to his edition of Shakespeare (Knight, Working Life, ii. 280–2).
Several letters written in 1767–9 by Governor Hutchinson, Lieutenant-Governor Andrew Oliver, and others, to Whately, which passed on his death to his brother William, were obtained by Franklin and brought before the Massachusetts house of representatives. These communications led to a petition from the colony to the privy council for the removal of the officials who had corresponded with Whately; during the hearing of the petition Wedderburn, as counsel for the officials, made his fierce attack on Franklin. A duel followed between William Whately and John Temple, an American gentleman residing in England.
[Gent. Mag. 1772, pp. 247, 343; Almon's Anecdotes, ii. 103–7, iii. 236–73; Cavendish's Debates, ii. 214–15; Chatham Corresp. iv. 75; Parton's Franklin, i. 560–82; Walpole's Journals, 1771–83, i. 255; Hutchinson's Diary, i. 81–93; Hutchinson's Massachusetts Bay (1828), pp. 404–18; Archbishop Whately's Life and Corresp. i. 2–3; Felton's Authors on Gardening, 2nd ed. pp. 70–6; Halkett and Laing's Anon. Lit. pp. 489, 1773, 2148.]
WHATELY, WILLIAM (1583–1639), puritan divine, son of Thomas Whately, twice mayor of Banbury, Oxfordshire, and Joyce, his wife, was born at Banbury on 21 May 1583. At fourteen he entered Christ's College, Cambridge, where he had Thomas Potman for his tutor. He graduated B.A. in 1601, having won notice as a logician and orator. He left Cambridge with decided puritan opinions to continue theological study at home, and married Martha, daughter of George Hunt, fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and for fifty-one years rector of Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire. At the instigation of his father-in-law (son of John Hunt, a puritan, condemned to be burnt by Queen Mary, but reprieved by her death), he repaired to Oxford to study for the ministry, and was incorporated at St. Edmund Hall on 15 July 1602 (Reg. of Univ. of Oxford, ed. Clark, ii. i. 366). He graduated M.A. on 26 June 1604, was soon after chosen lecturer in his native town, and was instituted on 9 Feb. 1610, on the king's presentation, to the vicarage of Banbury, where, although at first considered too puritan, he was soon much liked. His ‘able body and sound lungs’ (he was called ‘the Roaring Boy of Banbury’), added to his reputation for ‘matter, method, elocution, and pronunciation’ (Life of Harris, by W. D.), attracted ‘great wits’ and persons of many persuasions to come out from Oxford to hear him. With other ministers he delivered lectures at Stratford-on-Avon.
