impression. London, 1661,' 4to. This play is full of snatches of songs, like No. 1. It is given to Wager in the 'British Museum Catalogue' on the authority of the appended 'exact catalogue,' which gives him the 'Trial of Chivalry' also.
William Wager has sometimes been erroneously identified with William Gager [q. v.], a writer of Latin tragedies, who was a graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, late in the sixteenth century. William Wager has also been confused with
Lewis Wager (fl. 1566), who became rector of St. James's, Garlickhithe, on 28 March 1560 (Newcourt), and was author of 'A New Enterlude never before this tyme imprinted, entreating of the Life and Repentaunce of Marie Magdalene … made by the learned clarke Lewis Wager.' This was licensed for publication to John Charlewood in 1566, and an edition appeared in that year. It was reissued with the date 1567 on the title-page. The 'enterlude' was acted at the universities. To Lewis Wager is often attributed the 'Cruell Debtter,' which is stated in the 'Stationers' Registers' to be by 'Wager' (without christian name), but its ascription to William seems more likely to be true (cf. Collier, Extract from Stationers' Company Registers, 1557-70, pp. 130, 156; Hazlitt, Bibliographical Collections, 2nd ser.)
[References in text; Ward's English Dramatic Literature, i. 74; Fleay's Chronicle of the English Drama, ii. 267; Hazlitt's Handbook, p. 637; Furnivall's Captain Cox (Ballad Soc); Academy, 9 March 1878.]
WAGHORN, MARTIN (d. 1787), captain in the navy, was on 16 Dec. 1762 promoted by Vice-admiral [Sir Samuel] Cornish [q. v.] to be lieutenant of the Manila, one of the prizes at Manila, which, though then commissioned, was not put on the list of the navy. In the following August he was appointed, also by Cornish, to the Liverpool frigate, and in her he returned to England. In November 1764 he was put on half-pay, and so remained for nearly fourteen years. It is possible that during this time he was at sea in merchant ships. It does not appear that he was a man of property, and the half-pay of 2s., a day was clearly not sufficient to maintain him in idleness. On 18 March 1778 he was appointed to the Victory, then fitting for the flag of Admiral Augustus (afterwards Viscount) Keppel [q. v.] He seems to have continued in the Victory for upwards of three years, under the flag of Sir Charles Hardy (the younger) [q. v.] and (Sir) Francis Geary [q. v.], during the greater part of which time Richard Kempenfelt [q. v.], who had probably known something of Waghorn in the East Indies, was captain of the fleet.
On 15 Aug. 1781 Waghorn was promoted to be commander of the Fly sloop, and on 6 April 1782 to be captain of the Royal George, in which Kempenfelt, now a rear-admiral, hoisted his flag. He was still captain of the Royal George when she sank at Spithead on 29 Aug. 1782 [see Durham, Sir Philip Charles Henderson Calderwood]. Waghorn was thrown into the water, and, though much bruised, was able to keep afloat till he was picked up. At the court-martial held on 9 Sept. on Waghorn and the other survivors the circumstances of the accident were fully inquired into, and the decision of the court, in acquitting Waghorn and the others of all blame, was 'that the ship was not overheeled; that the captain, officers, and ship's company used every exertion to right the ship as soon as the alarm was given of her settling;' and it expressed the distinct opinion, 'from the short space of time between the alarm being given and the sinking of the ship, that some material part of her frame gave way, which can only be accounted for by the general state of the decay of her timbers.' This is so contrary to the opinion noised abroad at the time, and impressed on popular memory by Cowper's celebrated verses, that it may be well to add that the court was composed of the full number of officers—thirteen—all capable men, many of them of very high distinction—Samuel Barrington, Mark Milbanke, Alexander Hood (Lord Bridport), William Hotham (Lord Hotham), John Leveson Gower, Sir John Jervis (Earl of St. Vincent), Adam Duncan Lord Duncan)—all of whose names will be found in this Dictionary. On his acquittal Waghorn was put on half-pay; in September 1783 he was appointed to the Trusty, as flag-captain to Commodore Sir John Lindsay [q. v.] in the Mediterranean. The ship was paid off in July 1785, and Waghorn was again put on half-pay. He died on 17 Dec. 1787.
[Commission and Warrant Books, Half-pay Books and Minutesvof the Court Martial, vol. lx.in the Public Record Office.]
WAGHORN, THOMAS (1800–1850), lieutenant in the navy and promoter of the overland route to India, son of a Rochester tradesman (Notes and Queries, 6th ser. vii. 218), was born at Rochester on 20 Jan. 1800. He entered the navy in 1812, passed his examination in 1817, and being, by the reduction of the navy after the peace, unable to get employment, engaged himself as third mate or a merchant-ship trading to
