[43] 4to, 1776, p. 116.
[44] The autograph MS. begins here.
[45] 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.
[46] The place was Lymington, in the Diocese of Bath and Wells. He was instituted October 10, A. D. 1500. Fiddes, p. 5.
[47] The tradition is, that Wolsey was set in the stocks by Sir Amyas Pawlet’s direction, for disorderly conduct at a fair where he had drunk to excess. The ground for this assertion is not known, but it seems to rest upon no earlier authority than that of Sir John Harrington. It may be remarked that Storer, in his metrical Life of Wolsey, represents him as the injured party:
“Wrong’d by a knight for no desert of mine.”
[48] September, 1501.
[49] Fiddes asserts that Sir John Nanfan was a Somersetshire gentleman. Nash, in his History of Worcestershire states, that the father and the son have been confounded, and that it was Sir Richard Nanfan, a gentleman of that county, who was captain of Calais about this time, i. e. circa 1503. His son’s name was Sir John; but it is evident that the words a very grave and ancient knight can only apply to Sir Richard.
[50] Place, or office.
[51] Wolsey had not only the address and good qualities necessary to the acquisition of such friends, but also retained them to the last. The affection of Bishop Fox is apparent in the last letter which he wrote to him; and Sir Thomas Lovell’s esteem was manifested to the close of his life, for he leaves him in his will “a standing cup of golde, and one hundred marks in golde.”