superintendence of some warehouses at St. Katherine's Docks, which he was erecting in collaboration with Thomas Telford [q. v.], the engineer. On leaving Hardwick in 1832 to begin practice on his own account he secured the appointment of district surveyor for Hackney, a post which he resigned in 1861.
In 1838, so greatly had his practice prospered under a number of patrons, among whom were the Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Denbigh, and Sidney Herbert, that he took as partner David Brandon, with whom during a connection of thirteen years he designed the assize courts at Cambridge, Brecon, and Usk, the Wilts and Bucks lunatic asylums, and many private residences.
At the close of this partnership he worked independently until about 1860, when he had the assistance of his son Matthew. His finest building was the exchange at Liverpool; the church at Wilton was an ambitious essay in Lombardic architecture, and one of the earliest modern buildings in which mosaic decoration was attempted in this country. The Knightsbridge barracks were among his most important undertakings, and, if they are rather imposing than beautiful, can at least be considered an honest and capable solution of a difficult problem. In collaboration with Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt he designed the garrison chapel at Woolwich. As honorary architect to the Athenæum he made important additions to the club-house, and he is also represented in London by the Adelphi Theatre, by extensive additions to the Consumption Hospital at Brompton, and by the mansion erected for Sir Dudley Marjoribanks in Park Lane. As an acknowledged authority on hospital construction he was appointed honorary architect to the Middlesex Hospital, consulting architect to the lunacy commissioners, and designed the Stockwell Fever Hospital and two hospitals at Malta. He held the post of consulting architect to the Incorporated Church Building Society and to the Salisbury Diocesan Society, and was connected as designer or restorer with more than 150 churches. Not only did Wyatt hold an honourable position in the Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he was president from 1870 to 1873, and gold medallist in 1873, but he was also an associate (admitted 1845) of the Institution of Civil Engineers, serving on the council in 1848, and acting as honorary architect for the reconstruction of premises carried out in 1847, and again in 1868.
Though failing health precluded full practice in his later years, Wyatt continued to participate actively in his profession almost to the date of his death, which took place at his residence, 77 Great Russell Street, London, on 5 Aug. 1880. He was buried at the church of Weston Patrick, near Basingstoke, which he had rebuilt partly at his own expense.
Though not an artist of great originality, Wyatt was a scholarly worker, with a good knowledge of various styles. He designed with readiness on either Classic or Gothic lines, was a good sketcher, an able planner, clear-headed in business, and to many of his clients a valued friend. He took an active part in the formation of the Architects' Benevolent Society.
[Architectural Publication Society's Dict.; Proc. of Institution of Civil Engineers, vol. lxiii. 1880–1, pt. i.; Times, 12 Aug. 1880; Builder, 14 Aug. 1880, xxxix. 230, where list of works is given; Trans. of Royal Inst. of British Architects, 1879–80, p. 230.]
WYATT, WILLIAM (1616–1685), scholar and friend of Jeremy Taylor, the son of William Wyat or Wyatt of ‘plebeian’ origin, was born at Todenham, near Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire, in 1616. He matriculated from St. John's College, Oxford, on 16 March 1637–8, but was prevented by the outbreak of the civil war from taking his degree in arts. His diligence as a scholar appears to have been noted by Jeremy Taylor while at Oxford in 1642, and at the close of 1644 he joined Taylor in Wales as an assistant teacher at his school, called Newton Hall (Collegium Newtoniense), in the parish of Llanfihangel-Aberbythych, Carmarthenshire. He seems to have spent a portion of his time, at any rate, with Taylor's family at Golden Grove, whence he dates the epistle dedicatory prefixed to ‘A New and Easie Institution of Grammar. In which the labour of many yeares usually spent in learning the Latine tongue is shortned and made easie. In usum Juventutis Cambro-Britannicæ. London, printed by J. Young for R. Royston … Ivie Lane,’ 1647, 12mo. Wyatt's epistle in Latin is addressed to Sir Christopher Hatton, and is followed by one by Taylor in English, addressed to Christopher Hatton, esquire, evidently one of the pupils. This curious little work, now exceedingly rare, was published in Taylor's name, but was mainly the work of Wyatt, with some aid from William Nicholson (1591–1672) [q. v.] and F. Gregory of Westminster school. Subsequently Wyatt, who was much sought after as a teacher, was tutor in a school at Evesham, and then assisted Dr. William Fuller (1608–1675) [q. v.] in a
