Sir Henry Wotton,
STATESMAN,
Was another member of the same distinguished family, the son of Thomas Wotton, of Boughton Hall, where he was born in 1568. He was educated at Winchester and Oxford where "he became well-versed in logic and philosophy," and proceeded Master of Arts at nineteen years of age. On leaving Oxford he travelled in France, Germany, and Italy. On his return he became secretary to Robert, Earl of Essex, on whose fall he again went to Italy, where he obtained the confidence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who employed him as a private envoy to James VI. of Scotland. On James becoming King of Scotland, Wotton was taken into his service and charged with many important embassies. He obtained no other reward, however, for his services than the Provostship of Eton, which he held till his death in 1689. On his tomb in the College Chapel he caused to be engraved this curious inscription, expressive of hatred of controversy—"Hie jacet hujus sententiæ primus auctor—Disputandi pruritus ecclesiæ scabies. Nomen alias quærere." He was the author of several works, including poems, some of them very beautiful. He was a friend of Isaac Walton, by whom his Life has been written.
[See his Life by Isaac Walton, and by Sir E. Brydges, "Biographia Britannica," etc.]