Note 45 — THE PROLOGUE.
Reading edition
He was born in the year 1471. See Fiddes’s Life of Wolsey, p. 2. 1726. By some it has been said that his father was a butcher, but the foundation for this assertion is not known. The zealous biographer of the cardinal, Mr. Grove, made two successive journeys to Ipswich for the purpose of obtaining information respecting him, but the whole fruit of both expeditions was ascertaining the Christian name of Wolsey’s father, and that he was a man of some substance! He printed, however, what he calls “The Life of Robert Wolsey, of Ipswich, Gentleman,” in 1761! The will of Wolsey’s father was published by Dr. Fiddes, and for its curiosity I shall give it a place in the Appendix.