Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Willymott, William
WILLYMOTT, WILLIAM (d. 1737), grammarian, born at Royston in Cambridgeshire, was the second son of Thomas Willymott of Royston, by his wife Rachael, daughter of William Pindar, rector of Boswell Springfield in Essex. He was educated at Eton and admitted a scholar of King's College, Cambridge, on 20 Oct. 1692, graduating B.A. in 1697, M.A. in 1700, and LL.D. in 1707. He became a fellow, and after taking his master's degree went as usher to Eton. After some years he left Eton and commenced a private school at Isleworth. In 1721 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the mastership of St. Paul's school, being rejected apparently because he was suspected of an attachment to the Pretender. Some time before this he studied civil law and entered himself of Doctors' Commons, but, changing his mind, took orders, and in 1721 was made vice-provost of King's College, of which he was then senior fellow. In 1705 he was presented to the rectory of Milton, near Cambridge. He died, unmarried, on 7 June 1737, at the Swan Inn at Bedford, while returning from a visit to Bath.
Willymott was the author of numerous school books. Among them may be mentioned: 1. ‘English Particles exemplified in Sentences designed for Latin Exercises,’ London, 1703, 8vo; 8th edit. 1771. 2. ‘The Peculiar Use and Signification of certain Words in the Latin Tongue,’ Cambridge, 1705, 8vo; 8th edit. Eton, 1790, 8vo; new edit. Eton, 1818, 12mo. 3. ‘Phrædrus [sic] his Fables, with English Notes,’ 4th edit. London, 1720, 12mo; new edit. 1728. He also translated ‘Lord Bacon's Essays,’ London, 1720, 8vo; new edit. 1787; and ‘Thomas a Kempis … his Four Books of the Imitation of Christ,’ London, 1722, 8vo.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 236–7, 705–6, iv. 600; Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, 1797, p. 297; Cole's Collections, xvi. 102.]