Robert Skinner [q. v.] He had been offered the same diocese as early as 1617 'as a maintenance, but he then refused it; but now having gotten some wealth he accepted it, that he might adorn it with hospitality out of his own estate.' Westfield held his other offices in commendam with his bishopric, probably without deriving any revenue from them. The emoluments of his bishopric also were at first retained from him by the parliamentary party, but on 13 May 1643 they were restored to him by order of the parliamentary committee of sequestrations out of respect for his character, and he was given a pass to Bristol. This good treatment may have been due to his consent to attend the Westminster assembly, which met on 1 July. Although his share in the proceedings was small, he was present at least at the first meeting. He died on 25 June 1644, and was buried in the choir in Bristol Cathedral, where a monument was erected to him by his wife Elizabeth (d. 1653), daughter of Adolphus Meetkirk, president of Flanders. By her he had a daughter Elizabeth.
Westfield was a man of nervous temperament, and at Oxford, on the only occasion on which he preached before the king, he was so agitated that he fainted away. He was so pathetic a preacher as to be called the weeping prophet. He was the author of two collections of sermons:
- 'Englands Face in Isrels Glasse, or the Sinnes, Mercies, Judgments of both Nations,' eight sermons, London, 1646, 4to; London, 1655, 4to; reprinted, with three other sermons, under the title 'Eleven choice Sermons as they were delivered … by Thomas Westfield … Bishop of Bristol,' London, 1656, 4to.
- 'The White Robe, or the Surplice vindicated,' four sermons, 1660, 12mo; new edit. 1669, 8vo.
[Cole's Collections in Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 5811 ff. 78-9, 5820 f. 152; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 345, ii. 70; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, ii. 3; Lloyd's Memoires, 1668, pp. 300-5; Newcourt's Repert. Londin. i. 95, 128, 296, 653; Le Neve's Fasti Eccles. Anglicanae; Lansdowne MS. 985, f. 62; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Fuller's Worthies of England, 1811, i. 160; Hennessy's Novum Repert. Eccles. Londin. 1898, pp. 18, 27, 101, 223; Harl. MS. 7176, pp. 172-5; Hetherington's Hist. of the Westminster Assembly, 1878, pp. 105, 113.]
WESTGARTH, WILLIAM (1815–1889), Australian colonist and politician, eldest son of John Westgarth, surveyor-general of customs for Scotland, Was born at Edinburgh on 15 June 1815; the family came from Weardale, Durham, where they had been well known for some generations. He was educated by Dr. Bruce at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and at the high schools at Leith and Edinburgh, leaving school early to enter the office of George Young & Co., Leith, Australian merchants.
In July 1840, attracted by glowing accounts of the new colony, Westgarth decided to emigrate to Port Phillip, afterwards Victoria, where he arrived on 13 Dec. 1840. At the time of his arrival at Melbourne the city was scarcely out of the bush, and was also at the time passing through a period of depression. He commenced business as a general merchant and importer, and at the same time threw himself with such heartiness into the general life of the settlement that he soon acquired a special position among his contemporaries. For some years he issued a half-yearly circular on the commerce and progress of the settlement. In 1843 he made a visit to England. In 1845 he was joined by Alfred Ross as partner, and in 1847 paid another visit to Great Britain, writing his earliest book on the colony during the voyage.
Westgarth first took part in public affairs as an active member of the 'Australasian Anti-transportation League,' which was formed to oppose the immigration of criminals; he was secretary to the Melbourne branch of the league. In 1850 he became member for Melbourne in the legislature of New South Wales, and he took a prominent part in the agitation which led to the separation of Victoria from New South Wales in the following year. In the first Legislative Council for Victoria he was one of the members for Melbourne. He also was at this time elected first president of the Melbourne chamber of commerce. As a member of the board of education he promoted the founding of the Mechanics' Institute, the forerunner of the Melbourne Athenæum. In the legislature he was recognised as the leader of the popular party. In 1852 he obtained the appointment of a committee on prison discipline, and, in pursuance of the policy to which he had already committed himself, carried a resolution against the further transportation of convicts to Victoria; in September of that year he brought in a bill which caused much sensation, and was popularly termed the 'Convict Influx Prevention Bill.' Possibly the most noteworthy of his proposals was that for a uniform tariff of import duties for all Australasian colonies, in which he was far in advance of his day. In May 1853 he resigned his seat on the council and left the colony on a visit to England; he returned in October 1854 to
