Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halsworth, Daniel
HALSWORTH or HOLDSWORTH, DANIEL, D.D., LL.D. (1558?–1595?), classical scholar, born in Yorkshire in or about 1558, arrived from England at the English College of Douay, then temporarily removed to Rheims, on 22 June 1580, and was sent in the same year with a number of other students to the English College at Rome, into which he was admitted on 9 Sept. He was ordained priest by Thomas Goldwell [q. v.], bishop of St. Asaph in the reign of Queen Mary, in October 1583. He remained in the college till September 1586, and was one of those who petitioned for the retention of the Society of Jesus in the management of the college. When he left he was sent with others to collect alms for the Rheims college, and it was intended that he should afterwards proceed to the English mission, but, with the consent of Cardinal Allen, he remained in Italy to continue his studies in one of the universities of that country, where he was created a doctor of the canon and civil laws and of divinity. Pits, who had been his fellow-student in the English College at Rome, extols him highly for his learning. He distinguished himself in oratory, poetry, philosophy, and mathematics, and in his knowledge of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. For some years he lived at the court of his patron, the Duke of Savoy, and afterwards was appointed theologian to St. Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, with whom he resided both at Rome and Milan. On 22 Sept. 1591 he visited the hospice attached to the English College at Rome, and made a stay of five days. In the ‘Pilgrim-Book’ he is described as of Salop (Foley, Records, vi. 564). He died at Rome about 1595.
He was author of: 1. ‘Virgilii Maronis Bucolica, e Latino in Græcum Idioma versibus translata. Authore Dan. Alsvorto, Anglo,’ Turin, 1591, 8vo. The dedication to Cardinal Allen contains some curious remarks on the state of England. 2. ‘Avli Licinii Archiæ Poetæ tantopere à Cicerone celebrati Epigrammata. … A Daniele Alsuorto Anglo Latinis versibus fidelissime reddita,’ Rome, 1596, 8vo, dedicated to Cardinal Henry Cajetan, protector of the English nation. Reprinted in vol. ii. of ‘M. T. Ciceronis Orationum Commentaria Selecta virorum Germaniæ, Italiæ, et Galliæ, notis, scholiis, et annotationibus illustrata,’ Cologne, 1685, 8vo. 3. Several other works, both in prose and verse, which were never printed.
[Dodd's Church Hist. ii. 90; Douay Diaries pp. 167, 168, 375; Foley's Records, vi. 116, 143, 507; Gillow's Bibl. Dict. of the English Catholics, iii. 103; Knox's Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen, p. 291; Pits, De Angliæ Scriptoribus, p. 794; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 372.]