[Wollaston, William Hyde], physicist and chemist, born in Norfolk, grandson of preceding; made extensive discoveries in chemistry and optics; invented the camera lucida and the goniometer.
[Wollstonecraft, Mary]. See [Godwin].
[Wolseley, Garnet Joseph, Lord], field-marshal, born in co. Dublin, of a Staffordshire family; entered the army in 1852; served in the Burmese War of 1852-1853, in the Crimean War, where he was severely wounded, in the Chinese War of 1860, and afterwards in Canada; commanded in the Ashantee War in 1878, and received the thanks of Parliament, with a grant of £25,000, for "courage, energy, and perseverance" in the conduct of it, and after services in Natal, Egypt, and Ireland was made field-marshal in 1894, and commander-in-chief in 1895; b. 1833.
[Wolsey, Thomas], cardinal, born at Ipswich, son of a well-to-do grazier and wool-merchant; educated at Magdalen College, Oxford; entered the Church early; gained the favour of Henry VII., and was promoted by him for his services to the deanery of Lincoln; this was the first of a series of preferments at the hands of royalty, which secured him one bishopric after another until his revenue accruing therefrom equalled that of the crown itself, which he spent partly in display of his rank and partly in acts of munificence; of his acts of munificence the founding of Christ Church College in the interest of learning was one, and the presentation of Hampton Court Palace, which he had built, to the king, was another; it was in the reign of Henry VIII. that he rose to power, and to him especially he owed his honours; it was for his services to him he obtained the chancellorship of the kingdom, and at his suit that he obtained the cardinal's hat and other favours from the Pope; this, though not the height of his ambition, was the limit of it, for he soon learned how frail a reed is a prince's favour; he refused to sanction his master's marriage with Anne Boleyn, and was driven from power and bereft of all his possessions; finally, though restored to the see of York, he was arrested on a charge of treason, took ill on the way to London, and died at Leicester, with the words on his lips, "Had I but served God as I have served the king, He would not have forsaken me in my grey hairs" (1471-1530).
[Wolverhampton] (82), a town in Staffordshire, 12½ m. NW. of Birmingham, in the midst of coal and iron fields; the centre of a group of towns engaged in different kinds of iron manufacture, locks and keys the staple, and the metropolis of the Black Country.
[Woman's Rights], claims on the part and in the behalf of women to a status in society which will entitle them to the legal and social privileges of men.
[Wood, Sir Andrew], Scottish admiral, born in Largo, Fife; was distinguished and successful in several naval engagements, chiefly in the Forth, against the English in the reigns of James III. and James IV.; received for his services the honour of knighthood and the village and lands of Largo in fee; was an eccentric old admiral; is said to have had a canal cut from his house to the church, and to have sailed thither in his barge every Sunday; d. 1540.
[Wood, Anthony], antiquary, born at Oxford, and educated at Merton College, Oxford; was a gentleman of independent means; wrote "History and Antiquities of Oxford University," which appeared in 1674, and "Athenæ Oxonienses," which appeared in 1691, being an exact history of all the writers and bishops educated at Oxford from 1500 to 1690 (1632-1695).
[Wood, Sir Evelyn], soldier, born in Essex; served in the Indian Mutiny War, and received the V.C., also in the Ashanti, in the Zulu, in the Transvaal (1880-1881) Wars, and in Egypt in 1882; b. 1838.
[Wood, Mrs. Henry] (née Price), novelist, born in Worcestershire; her best novels "The Channings" and "Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles," though her most popular "East Lynne"; she wrote some thirty, all popular, and deservedly so (1820-1887).