William Wotton
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William Wotton (August 13, 1666 - February 13, 1727), was an English scholar, chiefly remembered for his remarkable abilities in learning languages and for his involvement in The Battle of the Books.
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[edit] Early years
William Wotton was the second son of the Rev. Henry Wotton, rector of Wrentham, Suffolk. He was a child prodigy who could read verses from the Bible in English, Latin, Greek and Hebrew before he was six. In April 1676, when he was not yet ten years old, he was sent to Catharine Hall, Cambridge, and graduated in 1679 having by this time also acquired Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldee, as well as a knowledge of logic, philosophy, mathematics, geography, chronology, and history. His parents died whilst he was still at Cambridge, and as a teenager he was taken into the household of Gilbert Burnet, later bishop of Salisbury. He was awarded a fellowship at St John's College, from where he obtained an M.A. in 1683 and a B.D. in 1691. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1687. Soon after ordination he was appointed chaplain to Daniel Finch Earl of Nottingham, and tutor to his family. Finch presented him with the rectory of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, in 1693.
[edit] Ancients and Moderns
Wotton began his scholarly career as the translator of Louis Dupin’s A new history of ecclesiastical writers, (13 vols. 1692-99). However, he is chiefly remembered for his share in the controversy about the respective merits of ancient and modern learning. In his Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1694, and again 1697) he took the part of the moderns, although in a fair and judicial spirit. This work is regarded as one of the most balanced and well informed contributions to come out of the debate. Nevertheless, he was attacked for pedantry by Swift in The Battle of the Books and A Tale of a Tub. He also began to write a biography of the chemist Sir Robert Boyle, but his notes were lost and the work was never completed.
Wotton wrote a History of Rome in (1701) at the request of Bishop Burnet, which was later used by the historian Edward Gibbon. In recognition, Burnet appointed him as a prebend of Salisbury from 1705. In 1707 Wotton was awarded a "Lambeth degree" of Doctor of Divinity by Archbishop Thomas Tenison in recognition of his writings in support of the established Church of England against the Deists.
[edit] Studies in Wales
In 1714 Wotton was forced to abandon his rectory at Milton Keynes in order to avoid his creditors, and for seven years he lived at Carmarthen in south-west Wales under the assumed name of Dr William Edwards. Here he began to study Welsh. He produced an important bilingual parallel text edition of the Welsh and Latin texts of the medieval Welsh laws traditionally attributed to Hywel Dda at the request of his friend Archbishop William Wake. This work was completed after his death by his assistant, the Welsh scholar Moses Williams and published in 1730 by his son-in-law William Clarke in a large folio edition under the title Leges Wallicae. Whilst at Carmarthen he also conducted surveys of the cathedrals of St David's and Llandaff which were published by his friend Browne Willis in 1717 and 1718. He also published Miscellaneous Discourses relating to the Traditions and Usages of the Scribes and Pharisees which included a translation of part of the Jewish Mishnah in (1718).
[edit] Epilogue
Wotton had repaid his creditors and was able to return to Bath in October 1721 and London in June 1722 but was in very poor health. He was still working on his Leges Wallicae, when he died of dropsy at Buxted, Sussex, on 13 February 1727.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Works by Wotton
- Cyfreithjeu Hywel Dda ac eraill, seu Leges Wallicae Ecclesiasticae et Civiles Hoeli boni et Aliorum Walliae Principum (London, 1730)
- A History of Rome (1701)
- Miscellaneous Discourses relating to the Traditions and Usages of the Scribes and Pharisees (1718)
- (trans.), Louis Dupin, A new history of ecclesiastical writers, (13 vols. 1692-99)
- Reflections upon Ancient and Modern Learning (1694, 1697)
[edit] Sources
- Charles Ashton, Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymreig o 1650 i 1850 (Liverpool, 1891)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
