of the pupils in the monastic school. Both are printed in Monumenta Alcuiniana, pp. 39–79 (vol. vi. of Jaffé's Bibl. Rer. Germ.). Alcuin wrote at the request of Beornrad, archbishop of Sens and abbot of Echternach from 777 to 797. Next Beornrad himself, at the request of Charles the Great, collected the traditions concerning Willibrord which still existed in the monastery of Echternach, and so laid the foundation of the ‘Golden Book.’ Early in the twelfth century two new lives were written by Theofrid (d. 1110), abbot of Echternach, one in prose and one in verse, together with sermons for St. Willibrord's day. Extracts from Theofrid's lives are in Monumenta Epternacensia Germ., in Pertz's Mon. Scriptores, tom. xxiii. 23–30, and the details given above are from Weiland's Introduction, pp. xi, xix. Next the abbot Theodoric, who wrote the Chronicon Epternacense, a chronicle ending in 1192, wrote much of him. Migne's Pat. Lat. vol. lxxxix. contains Diplomata ad S. Willibrordum vel ab eo collata, which give further details, as does Pertz's Mon. Scriptores tom. ii. xv. xxiii. Other lives and discussions of Willibrord, his work, relics, and commemoration, are Dederich's Das Leben des heiligen Willibrordus nach Alcuin, in his Beiträge zur römisch-deutschen Geschichte am Niederrhein (1850); Engling's Apostolat des heiligen Willibrord im Lande der Luxemburger (1863); Krier's Die Springprozession in Echternach (1870); Le Mire's Cort Verhael van het Leven van den H. Willibrordus (1613); Muellendorff's Leben des heiligen Clemens Willibrord, &c. See also Batavia Sacra; Bosschaerf, De primis veteris Frisiæ Apostolis. The most modern authority is Thijm's Geschiedenis des Kerk in de Nederlande I. H. Willibrordus (1861), of which an enlarged German translation was published in 1863. Plummer's edition of Bede gives valuable notes. Popular books of devotion are still published, such as Lebensgeschichte des heiligen Clemens Willibrord, ein Andachtsbüchlein, &c. Trier, 1854.]
WILLIS. [See also Willes.]
WILLIS, BROWNE (1682–1760), antiquary, born at Blandford St. Mary on 14 Sept. 1682, was grandson of Thomas Willis (1621–1675) [q. v.], and eldest son of Thomas Willis (1658–1699) of Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, who married, at Westminster Abbey on 26 May 1681, Alice (b. 2 June 1663), eldest daughter of Robert Browne of Frampton and Blandford in Dorset. Thomas Willis died on 11 Nov. 1699, aged 41; his wife died of grief on 9 Jan. 1699–1700. Both were buried in the chancel of Bletchley church, and out of regard for their memory their son spent on the church the sum of 800l. between 1704 and 1707.
Browne Willis was educated at first by the Rev. Abraham Freestone, master of the endowed school at Beachampton, Buckinghamshire. Then he was sent to Westminster school, which he left on his mother's death, and his intense love of antiquities was implanted in him by his schoolboy rambles in Westminster Abbey. He was admitted gentleman-commoner of Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on 23 March 1699–1700, and in 1700 he became a student of the Inner Temple. At Oxford his tutor was Edward Wells [q. v.], and on leaving the university he lived for three years under the training of Dr. William Wotton [q. v.] at Middleton Keynes, a few miles from Bletchley. Several years later Willis published anonymously a tract of ‘Reflecting Sermons Consider'd, on discourses in Bletchley Church by Dr. E. Wells, rector, and Dr. E. Wells, curate.’
Willis possessed large means, owning Whaddon Hall, the adjoining manor and advowson of Bletchley, and the manor of Burlton in Burghill, Herefordshire. At Burlton he frequently met John Philips the poet, who alludes to him in his poem on ‘Cider’ (Cooke, Herefordshire, ‘Grimsworth Hundred,’ p. 55). From December 1705 to 1708 he sat in parliament for the borough of Buckingham, a town for which he had a peculiar affection; he was returned by the casting vote of a man brought from prison. After that date he was immersed in the study of antiquities. His property was augmented in 1707 by his marriage to Katharine, only child and heiress of Daniel Eliot of Port Eliot (bur. St. Germans, Cornwall, on 28 Oct. 1702). She brought him a fortune of 8,000l.
Willis's industry and retentive memory were subjects of general praise. He had visited every cathedral except Carlisle in England and Wales, and was one of the first antiquaries to base his works on the facts contained in records and registers, but he was very inaccurate in detail. He was a great oddity and knew nothing of mankind. Through his charitable gifts, his portions to his married children, and the expenditure of 5,000l. on the building of Water Hall at Bletchley, he ‘ruined his fine estate,’ and was obliged towards the end of his days to dress meanly and to live in squalor, becoming very dirty and penurious so that he was often taken for a beggar. He took an active part in 1717 in reviving the Society of Antiquaries, and was formally elected F.S.A. in April 1718. By diploma from the university of Oxford he was created M.A. 23 Aug. 1720, and D.C.L. on 10 April 1749. He was a member of the Spalding Society.
After an illness of some months Willis
