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[Entomologist, xi. 43; Entom. Monthly Mag. xvi. 213; Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., February 1878, p. 178; Darwin's Life of Charles Darwin; information kindly supplied by his widow; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Nat. Hist. Mus. Cat.; Roy. Soc. Cat.]
WOLLASTON, WILLIAM (1660–1724), moral philosopher, born on 26 March 1659–60 at Coton-Clanford, Staffordshire, was son of William Wollaston by Elizabeth (Downes). The Wollastons were an old Staffordshire family. One, Henry Wollaston (d. 1616), went to London and returned with a fortune made in trade. A dispute between his sons as to the succession was finally compromised. The eldest, William, got most of the property, saved money, bought the manor of Shenton, near Market-Bosworth, Leicestershire, and, dying in 1666, left a good estate to his son William. Henry's younger son, Thomas, who had been prosperous, took to drink, got into political trouble, and passed the ‘greater part of his life in repentance.’ He lived, however, to be eighty-seven, dying in 1674, and was a ‘comely old gentleman.’ He was chiefly dependent for support in later years upon his rich brother. He married Sabina, daughter of Sir G. Aldrych (d. 1626), and his youngest son, William, lived with him at various places near Shenton, and married Elizabeth Downes, daughter of a small country gentleman at Coton-Clanford. The family was embarrassed, and William apprenticed most of his sons to tradesmen.
His second son, also a William, got a little schooling, chiefly at Lichfield, and was sent to Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge, having some promise of patronage from the rich William of Shenton, his father's first cousin. He was admitted a pensioner on 18 June 1674. He had an incompetent tutor, and was put to many shifts to get books. He gained some reputation for scholarship, but made an enemy of the college dean by ridiculing him in an exercise at the schools. The dean revenged himself by spreading scandals against his pupil. Once the dons told him to write a copy of verses which they meant to ridicule, when he evaded them by writing in Hebrew, which none of them understood. Naturally, he lost any chance of a fellowship; and, after taking his M.A. degree, left Cambridge on 29 Sept. 1681. He returned to his family, writing a Pindaric ode by the way to ‘vent his melancholy.’ Finding no better preferment, he became assistant to the master of Birmingham school in 1682. His relatives, however, began to ‘invade his quiet.’ The failure in trade of an elder brother for whom he had become security brought claims upon him which he had great difficulty in satisfying. Then he had to help a younger brother who had taken to drink, married a perverse woman, and also ruined himself. Wollaston tried to find comfort by reading the book of Ecclesiastes, and turned it into another Pindaric ode. A new charter for the school was obtained on the accession of James II; the old master was turned out; and Wollaston, who hoped to succeed, was appointed to the second mastership, worth about 70l. a year, and took priest's orders. The old master retired to live with a brother near William Wollaston of Shenton, to whom they were both known. This William had no surviving sons and was in bad health, and looking out for an heir to his estates. The other William was, according to his own account, the only relative who ‘never stirred’ to court the rich cousin. Once, indeed, he preached a sermon to his cousin, who ‘thanked him heartily.’ The cousin also secretly obtained information as to Wollaston's habits, listened to the good accounts given of him by the retired schoolmaster, and finally made a will in his favour. Soon afterwards (19 Aug. 1688) he died, and the younger William Wollaston found himself heir to his cousin's ‘noble estate.’
There were drawbacks. William of Shenton had left a widow and two daughters; and the widow had legal claims, which she enforced beyond what must have been her husband's intentions. Wollaston's own relatives, too, were ‘exceeding burthens.’ His elder brother, in the Fleet prison, put in unjustifiable claims, but had to be supported till his death, which fortunately took place in 1694. Another brother, who had to be pensioned, persisted in living until after 1709. His father, too, was ‘not altogether pleased’ at missing the estate, but had now a competence, and died on 16 March 1691–2. Wollaston, however, arranged his affairs in the winter of 1688–9, and resolved to lead a comfortable life. A wife was the first essential. He paid addresses to a Miss Alice Coburne, daughter of a wealthy brewer, who died of small-pox in May 1689, on the day of their intended marriage. He erected a monu-
