Warren in 1784; seven of these are arranged for six voices in Vincent Novello's ‘Studies in Madrigalian Scoring.’ The finest pieces have been included in all madrigalian collections; some may be found in the great publications of Thomas Warren (1765 and 1768), Bland (1785), R. Webb (1808), Gwilt (1815), Clementi (c. 1820), Samuel Webbe (1830), and also in the cheap publications of Knight (1834), Hawes (1835), King (1839), Hullah (1841 and 1846), Rimbault (1842), Turle and Taylor (1844), Oliphant (1845), Joseph Warren (1856), in ‘The Harmonist,’ ‘Arion,’ Novello's ‘Musical Times,’ Curwen's ‘Tonic Sol-fa Reporter,’ Cramer's ‘Madrigals,’ ‘The Cyclopædia of Music,’ Cassell's ‘Choir-book,’ Boosey's ‘Standard Madrigals,’ ‘The Choir’ (August and November 1866), and Roberts's ‘Canigion y Cerddor.’ The two Latin motets were printed in Arkwright's ‘Old English Edition,’ vol. xxi. (1898); they, and the contributions to Leighton's collection, are less valuable than the secular works.
Nagel (Geschichte der Musik in England, ii. 142) describes Wilbye's madrigals as ‘almost all model works, whose part-writing is always interesting, whose harmonic colouring is of the most pleasing variety;’ and praises the themes for their inherent beauty and suitableness to the words. He adduces as specimens of the range of expression at Wilbye's command, ‘Weep, O mine eyes’ and ‘What needeth all this travail,’ the opposite emotions in which are depicted with equal skill; and points out that Wilbye's frequent attempts at word-painting do not interfere with the organic unity of the musical construction. Hullah (History of Modern Music, 1861, p. 7) asserted that ‘the works of Wilbye and many of his contemporaries are hardly less familiar to our generation than they were to their own;’ but this statement no longer holds good, owing to the much increased cultivation of instrumental music and the consequent decline of madrigal-singing.
[Wilbye's Works; Hawkins's Hist. of Music, c. 104; Burney's Hist. of Music, iii. 86; British and Foreign Review 1844, p. 406; Grove's Dict. of Mus. ii. 191–3, iv. 435; Rimbault's Bibliotheca Madrigaliana, pp. 11, 28; Davey's Hist. of English Music, pp. 202, 216, 219, 244, 399; information from Mr. Arkwright.]
WILCOCKS, JOSEPH (1673–1756), successively bishop of Gloucester and of Rochester, born on 19 Dec. 1673, was the son of Joseph Wilcocks, a physician of Bristol. He entered Merchant Taylors' school on 11 Sept. 1684, and matriculated from St. John's College, Oxford, on 25 Feb. 1691-2. From 1692 till 1703 he held a demyship at Magdalen College, and a fellowship from 1703 till 15 Feb. 1721-2. He graduated B.A. on 31 Oct. 1695, M.A. on 28 June 1698, and B.D. and D.D. on 16 May 1709. He was for some time chaplain to the English factory at Lisbon in 1709, and to the English embassy, and on his return was appointed chaplain-in-ordinary to George I and preceptor to the daughters of the Prince of Wales. On 11 March 1720-1 he was installed a prebendary of Westminster, and on 3 Dec. 1721 he was consecrated bishop of Gloucester, holding his stall in commendam. On 21 June 1731 he was installed dean of Westminster, and on the same day was nominated bishop of Rochester. He steadily refused further promotion, declining even the archbishopric of York, and devoted himself to completing the west front of Westminster Abbey. He died on 28 Feb. 1756, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 9 March under the consistory court, where his son erected a monument to his memory in 1761. He married Jane (d. 27 March 1725), the daughter of John Milner, British consul at Lisbon. There is a portrait of Wilcocks in the deanery of Westminster, which was engraved by Grave, and another in the hall of Magdalen College. He published several sermons.
His only son, Joseph Wilcocks (1724–1791), born in Dean's Yard, Westminster, on 4 Jan. 1723-4, was admitted upon the foundation of Westminster school in 1736, |and was elected to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1740, matriculating on 10 June and graduating B.A. in 1744 and M.A. in 1747. Possessed of a considerable estate, he modestly devoted his property to acts of beneficence, and his time to study. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1765. While residing at Rome his piety and benevolence won the admiration of Clement XIII, who styled him the 'blessed heretick.' For the use of Westminster school he prepared four books of 'Sacred Exercises,' which reached a fifth edition in 1785 (London, 8vo). He lived for some time in Barton, Northamptonshire, and afterwards at Lady Place, near Hurley in Berkshire. He died unmarried at the Crown Inn, Slough, on 23 Dec. 1791, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 31 Dec., in his father's vault. He left behind prepared for the press a work founded on his residence in Rome, entitled 'Roman Conversations, or a Short Description of the Antiquities of Rome' (London, 1792–4, 2 vols.
