Thomas Wotton (writer)
Thomas Wotton (d. 1766), was an English antiquarian, compiler of the Baronetage.
Wotton was warden of the Stationers' Company in 1754 and master in 1757. Among the works published by him were John Rushworth's Historical Collections and editions of the works of Francis Bacon and John Selden. In 1727 he issued in three small (16mo) volumes his English Baronetage. Being a Genealogical and Historical Account of their Families. It was dedicated to Holland Egerton of Heaton, Lancashire, son of Sir John, baronet, of Wrine Hall, Staffordshire. William Holman of Halstead, Essex, and Thornhaugh Gurdon of Norfolk had also placed their collections at his disposal; and great assistance had been given by Arthur Collins, who himself published a baronetage in 1720. The work is divided into five sections, containing respectively an account of the institution of the order by James I, the descents, creations, successions, and public employments of the baronets; correct lists of existing and extinct baronets, exact tables of precedence, and an account of the institution of the order in Nova Scotia and Ireland. An explanatory index of terms in heraldry is appended. In 1741 Wotton published in five octavo volumes a revised and enlarged edition, which is usually erroneously attributed to Collins. In it were incorporated the manuscript notes furnished by Robert Smyth, who had published a volume of corrections and additions. Peter Le Neve who published three folio volumes on the same subject, also rendered valuable assistance to Wotton in preparing this edition. Letters, notes, and pedigrees furnished to Wotton for his Baronetage are in Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 24114–21.
In 1771, after Wotton's death, a further edition of the Baronetage was issued in three volumes, under the editorship of Richard Johnson and Edward Kimber. The copy in the British Museum has manuscript notes by Francis Hargrave. The arrangement of each edition is chronological. Wotton died at Point Pleasant, Surrey, on 1 April 1766.
Personal
Wotton was the son of Matthew Wotton, who kept a bookshop at the Three Daggers and Queen's Head, near St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street. According to John Dunton, the elder Wotton was ‘a very courteous, obliging man’ of the highest character, whose trade ‘lay much among the lawyers.’ Thomas Wotton succeeded to his father's business and carried it on for many years, but retired some time before his death.
References
Norgate, Gerald le Grys (1900). "Wotton, Thomas". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 63. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- John Nichols, Lit. Anecd. i. 62, iii. 440, 441 nn. 602, v. 48, 49 n.
- The Gentleman's Magazine 1766, p. 199
- John Dunton, Life and Errors, 1818, i. 210
- Samuel Austin Allibone, Dict. Engl. Lit.
- Wotton's Baronetages; art. Collins, Arthur.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Norgate, Gerald le Grys (1900). "Wotton, Thomas". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 63. London: Smith, Elder & Co.