WISEMAN, NICHOLAS PATRICK STEPHEN (1802–1865), cardinal-archbishop of Westminster, born at Seville on 2 Aug. 1802, was younger of the two sons by a second marriage of James Wiseman, an Irish catholic who had settled as a merchant in Spain. The family claimed descent from Capel Wiseman, protestant bishop of Dromore, third son of Sir William Wiseman, bart., and great-grandson of Sir John Wiseman, one of the auditors of the exchequer in the reign of Henry VIII. The family baronetcy is now represented by Sir William Wiseman of Lynton in Bedfordshire. The cardinal’s father married, first, Mariana Dunphy, the daughter of a Spanish general; by her he had three daughters, of whom Marianne married Thomas Tucker, and their only child became the wife of William Burke of Knocknagur, and mother of the present Sir Theobald Burke, and of Thomas Henry Burke [q. v.], under-secretary of state for Ireland. The cardinal’s father while on a visit to London married, in the church of SS. Mary and Michael in the Commercial Road, London, on 18 April 1800, his second wife, Xaviera, daughter of Peter Strange of Aylwardston Castle, co. Kilkenny. Two sons and a daughter were the result of the union. The elder son was named James, and the younger was the cardinal. Frances, the youngest child, married Count Andrea Gabrielli, of Fano, councillor of state under the papal government; she was mother of Count Randal Gabrielli. The cardinal’s mother lived for many years at Fano, where the poet Browning met her in 1848.
Wiseman’s parents returned from London to Seville early in 1802. On 3 Aug. in that year, the day after his birth, he was baptised at the church of Santa Cruz in that city. His paternal uncle, Patrick Wiseman, was his sponsor; 3 Aug. was commemorative of St. Stephen, whence his names Patrick and Stephen. While he was still an infant his mother laid him on one of the altars of Seville Cathedral, where he was solemnly consecrated to the service of the church. His father died suddenly of apoplexy at Seville in 1804. The young widow, with her three children, left Spain in 1805 for Waterford. There they remained two years, during which the boys received instruction at a local boarding-school. On 23 March 1810 Nicholas and his elder brother entered St. Cuthbert’s College at Ushaw, near Durham. Thomas Eyre (1748–1810) [q. v.], the president, died just two months after the boys' arrival. His post was temporarily filled for a year by the vice-president, John Lingard the historian. Despite the disparity in years, Wiseman and Lingard then laid the foundation of a lifelong friendship. Wiseman studied syntax and rhetoric under Charles Newsham, afterwards president of Ushaw. Wiseman describes himself as appearing ‘dull and stupid’ to his companions when not in class, as never having ‘said a witty or clever thing while at college,’ but he was always reading and thinking while others played. ‘No pastime,’ as Cardinal Manning said of him at his funeral, was ‘so sweet as a book.’ It was only in his last year at St. Cuthbert’s that his name appeared at the top of his class.
Before leaving St. Cuthbert’s Nicholas made up his mind to become a priest. A cottage not far from the college on the road to Durham is still pointed out as that in which he took shelter from a terrific thunderstorm, in the course of which he is said to have received his religious vocation. Before quitting St. Cuthbert’s, on 28 Sept. 1818, at the age of sixteen, Nicholas received the four minor orders. He was to complete his education at the English College at Rome. Embarking at Liverpool on 2 Oct. for Italy with five other clerical students from Ushaw, Wiseman reached Rome on 18 Dec. 1818. Six days afterwards the six youths were admitted to an audience at the Quirinal by Pius VII, to whom they were presented by Robert Gradwell [q. v.], rector of the newly reconstituted English College in the Via di Monserrato. At his own wish, Nicholas began at an early date to study at the Sapienza the Syriac and other oriental languages. Already in 1820 he was inter pares for the second prize in schola physico-mathematica, and also obtained the second prize ‘in schola physico-chimica.’ In 1822 he gained first prize in dogmatic theology, and the second prize in scholastic theology. Again, in 1823, he took the first prize in dogmatic and was ‘laudatus’ in scholastic theology, winning also the first prize in Hebrew. On 27 July 1823 Wiseman in a public discussion undertook to answer twelve objections, and to maintain as many as four hundred propositions. Cardinal Capellari (afterwards Gregory XVI) and the Abbé de Lamennais were among the auditors. In 1824 he was created doctor in divinity ‘cum præmio.’ On 18 Dec. of that year he was ordained subdeacon, on 23 Jan. in the following year deacon, and on 19 March 1825 priest.
By a special rescript of Leo XII, Wiseman was appointed assistant to the Abbate Molza, who was compiling a Syriac grammar, anthology, and lexicon, with the encouragement of the pope. In 1828 the result of
