stantinople, Armenia, and Khorassan, where he was made a slave but was rescued by Abbas Mirza. Undaunted, he traversed Bokhara, Balkh, and reached Kábul, emerging from Central Asia in a state of nudity after having been plundered and compelled to march six hundred miles without clothing. From Ludiána he went to Calcutta in a palanquin, preaching at a hundred and thirty stations on his way. At Simla Lady William Bentinck told him that, though she had convinced the governor-general's court that he was not mad, she could not persuade them that he was not an enthusiast; to which he replied, ‘I hope I am an enthusiast drunk with the love of God.’ After visiting Kashmir he was seized with cholera near Madras. On his recovery he went to Pondicherry in a palanquin, visited the mission in Tinnevelli, and proceeded by Goa to Bombay. He returned westward by Egypt and Malta. In 1836 he journeyed to Abyssinia, where he found at Axum Samuel Gobat, afterwards bishop of Jerusalem. He conveyed Gobat, who was very ill, to Jiddah, and then proceeded to Sana in Yemen, where he visited the Rechabites and Wahabites. After visiting Bombay he went on to the United States, where he preached before congress and received the degree of D.D. at Annapolis in Maryland. In 1837 he was ordained deacon by the bishop of New Jersey, and in 1838 priest by the bishop of Dromore. In the same year he was instituted rector of Linthwaite in Yorkshire. In 1843 he made a second journey to Bokhara in order to ascertain the fate of Lieutenant-colonel Charles Stoddart [q. v.] and of Captain Arthur Conolly [q. v.] He was sent out by a committee formed in London by Captain John Grover, which raised 500l. for his journey. His mission involved him in the gravest peril, for Stoddart and Conolly had already been executed, and their executioner was sent to despatch Wolff also. He escaped almost miraculously, and brought to England the first authentic news of the fate of the two officers. After his return, on 11 April 1845, he published in London and New York a ‘Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara to ascertain the Fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly’ (2 vols. 8vo), which reached a seventh edition in 1852 (Edinburgh, 8vo). Portions of his journal were published in the ‘Athenæum’ between 1844 and 1845 during the expedition. In 1845 he was presented to the vicarage of Ile Brewers in Somerset, where he died on 2 May 1862, while contemplating a new and wider missionary journey (cf. Dr. Wolff's New Mission, 1860). He was twice married: first, on 6 Feb. 1827, to Georgiana Mary, sixth daughter of Horatio Walpole, second earl of Orford (of the second creation). By her he had a son, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, G.C.B. (1830–1908), named after his earliest English friend. She died on 16 Jan. 1859, and on 14 May 1861 he married, secondly, Louisa Decima, youngest daughter of James King (1767–1842) of Staunton Court, Herefordshire, rector of St. Peter-le-Poer, London.
Wolff was a singular personality. At home in any kind of society in Europe or Asia, he fascinated rather than charmed by his extraordinary vitality and nervous energy. He signed himself ‘Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ for Palestine, Persia, Bokhara, and Balkh,’ and styled himself the Protestant Xavier. Xavier, indeed, was his constant model, and he ‘lamented that he had not altogether followed that missionary in the matter of celibacy, such was the sorrow that their separation, by his frequent wanderings, brought on Lady Georgiana and himself’ (Smith, Life of Wilson, p. 124).
Besides the work already mentioned, Wolff was the author of:
- ‘Sketch of the Life and Journal of Joseph Wolff,’ Norwich 1827, 12mo.
- ‘Missionary Journal and Memoir,’ ed. John Bayford, London, 1824, 8vo; 2nd edit. 1827–9, 3 vols. 8vo.
- ‘Journal of Joseph Wolff for 1831,’ London, 1832, 8vo.
- ‘Researches and Missionary Labours among the Jews, Mohammedans, and other Sects between 1831 and 1834,’ Malta, 1835, 8vo; 2nd edit. London, 1835, 8vo.
- ‘Journal of Joseph Wolff, containing an Account of his Missionary Labours from 1827 to 1831, and from 1835 to 1838,’ London, 1839, 8vo.
- ‘Travels and Adventures of Joseph Wolff,’ London, 1860, 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd edit. 1861; translated into German in 1863.
[Wolff's Works; Gent. Mag. 1862, ii. 107–9; Burke's Peerage, s.v. ‘Orford;’ Burke's Landed Gentry, s.v. ‘King;’ Joseph Leech's Church-goer, 1847, i. 233–41; Memoir of Bishop Gobat, 1884, pp. 177–80; Smith's Life of Wilson of Bombay, 1878, pp. 251–2.]
WOLLASTON, FRANCIS (1731–1815), author, born on 23 Nov. 1731, was the eldest son of Francis Wollaston (1694–1774) by his wife Mary (1702–1773), eldest daughter of John Francis Fauquier, and sister of Francis Fauquier [q. v.], the writer on finance. William Wollaston [q. v.] was his grandfather. During his earlier years he received much friendly assistance in his studies from Daniel Wray [q. v.] (Nichols, Illustr. of Lit. Hist. i. 12). He was educated at Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, matriculating in June 1748, and graduating LL.B. in 1754.
