Note 23 — WHO WROTE CAVENDISH’S LIFE OF WOLSEY?

John Wilson of Bromhead.

It formed part of the curious collection of manuscripts made by the late John Wilson, Esq. of Bromhead near Sheffield, in Yorkshire; a gentleman who spent a long life in collecting, and transcribing where he could not procure possession of the original, whatever might throw any light upon the descent of property, or on the history, language, or manners of our ancestors. He was the intimate friend and correspondent of Burton, Watson, Brooke, Beckwith, and indeed of all that generation of Yorkshire antiquaries which passed away with the late Mr. Beaumont of Whitley Beaumont. Mr. Wilson died in 1783. Cavendish’s library was not the best furnished apartment of his magnificent mansion. For the satisfaction of the gentle Bibliomaniac, I shall transcribe the brief catalogue of his books. “Chawcer, Froyssarte Cronicles, a boke of French and English.” They were kept in the new parler, where were also the pictor of our sov^reigne lord the kyng, the pyctor of the Frenche kyng and another of the Frenche quene: also ‘two other tables, one with towe anticke boys, & the other of a storye of the Byble.’ In ‘the lyttle parler’ was ‘a payntyd clothe with the pictor of Kyng Harry the VIII^th our sovereygne lord, & kyng Harry the VII^th & the VI^th, Edward the Forthe & Rychard the Third.’