Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/284

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cause. He was restored to his vicarage in 1660, and was buried at Linkinhorne on 1 Oct. 1662.

He married at Linkinhorne, in 1615, Mary, daughter of James Spicer of St. Gorran, ‘who came out of the East Countrey.’ His son Theophilus was matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1652, and, like his father, furnished John Aubrey [q. v.] with notes for his ‘Brief Lives’ (ed. Clark, i. 139, 245, 281, 308, ii. 203, 307).

His principal works were: 1. ‘Hermes Theologus: or a Divine Mercurie dispatcht with a grave Message of New Descants upon Old Records,’ London, 1649, 12mo, edited with a preface by the Rev. Edward Simmons. There is a portrait of Wodenote in the engraved title-page. 2. ‘Good Thoughts in Bad Times,’ London, 1652? Wood says this manual was written at Broad Chalk, Wiltshire, while the author ‘absconded in the house of a near relation of his (vicar of that place), being then obnoxious to arrests.’ 3. ‘Eremicus Theologus; or a Sequestred Divine his Aphorisms or Breviats of Speculations,’ London, 1654, 8vo.

[Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 5524 f. 156 b; Arber's Reg. of Stationers' Company, 1877, iv. 90; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornubiensis; Cole's Hist. of King's Coll. Cambridge, iii. 51; Visitation of Cornwall, 1620 (Harl. Soc.), p. 266; Life of Nicholas Ferrar (Mayor), pp. 179, 355; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, 5th edit. ii. 73; Harwood's Alumni Eton. pp. 177, 211; Pref. to Hermes Theologus; Kennett's Register, p. 231; Walker's Sufferings, ii. 392.]

T. C.


WODENOTH or WOODNOTH, ARTHUR (1590?–1650?), colonial pioneer, born about 1590, was descended from the Wodenoths or Woodnoths of Savington, Cheshire (Two Lives of Ferrar, ed. Mayor, p. 339; Visitation of Cheshire, pp. 254-6; Addit. MSS. 6529 f. 72, 6032 f. 132; Ormerod, Cheshire, iii. 448, 483-4). He was second son of John Wodenoth of Savington, by his second wife, Jane, daughter of John Touchet of Whitley. Mary Wodenoth, the mother of Nicholas Ferrar [q. v.], was his father's sister; and his father's brother Thomas, who settled at Linkinhorne, Cornwall, and spelt the name Wodenote, was father of Theophilus Wodenote [q. v.] (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 5524, 157).

At one time Arthur thought of taking holy orders, but was dissuaded by Ferrar, and returned to his business, which was that of a goldsmith in Foster Lane, London. His intimacy with the Ferrars is shown by the numerous letters to him from Ferrar's sister, Mrs. Collet, printed by Mayor; it was he who arranged the purchase of Little Gidding by Mrs. Ferrar, and supervised the restoration of the neighouring church at Leighton, to which Ferrar's friend George Herbert [q. v.] had been presented in 1626; with Herbert Wodenoth became as intimate as he was with the Ferrars. He witnessed Mrs. Ferrar's will in 1628, was present at Herbert's death in 1633, and was executor of his will (Walton, Lives, ed. 1827, pp. 271, 279, 281, 283, 287, 312-13). He was also well known to Izaak Walton [q. v.], whom he supplied with details of Herbert's life (Herbert, County Parson, ed. Beeching, pp. xix-xxvi). It was probably through Ferrar and Mrs. Ferrar's second husband, Sir John Danvers [q. v.], that Wodenoth became interested in the Virginia Company. He was not a member till some time after 1612, but he took an active part in the affairs of the company till the revocation of its charter, siding, like Ferrar, with the party of Sir Edwin Sandys [q. v.] against that of Sir Thomas Smith (1558?-1625) [q. v.] In 1644 he was deputy governor of the Somers Islands Company, and before his death he drew up a 'Short Collection of the most Remarkable Passages from the Originall to the Dissolution of the Virginia Company,' London, 1651, 4to; it is in the main a defence of Sandys, Ferrar, and Danvers, and has been often quoted by the historians of Virginia. Wodenoth was dead before the publication, and in the preface by 'A. P.' is said to have been 'a true friend and servant to . . .the parliament interest.' He was married, and had a son Ralph.

[Two Lives of Ferrar, ed. Mayor, passim; Herbert's Country Parson, ed. Beeching; Izaak Walton's Lives; Brown's Genesis of the United States; authorities cited.]

A. F. P.

WODHULL, MICHAEL (1740–1816), book-collector and translator, son of John Wodhull (1678–1754) of Thenford, Northamptonshire, by his second wife, Rebeccah (1702–1794), daughter of Charles Watkins of Aynhoe, Northamptonshire, was born at Thenford on 15 Aug. 1740. He was sent from a private school at Twyford to Winchester College, where he was known as the ‘long-legged Republican’ (Wrangham, English Library, p. 520). On 13 Jan. 1758 he matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, but did not take a degree.

Wodhull was possessed of a large fortune. His town house was in Berkeley Square, and about 1765 he built the existing manor-house (replacing an Elizabethan mansion) near the church at Thenford, a good view of