William Vyse (priest)

Memorial to William Vyse in Lichfield Cathedral

The Ven. William Vyse, FRS, FSA (30 October 1742 in Lichfield – 20 February 1816 in Lambeth) was Archdeacon of Coventry from 1793 until his death,[1][2][3] and Chancellor of Lichfield from 1798.[4]

The family's earlier history in Staffordshire is outlined by the editor of Erdeswicke.[5] The son of William Vyse, Archdeacon of Salop[6] and his wife Catherine Smalbroke, he matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford in 1758, but received his degrees from All Souls' College, Oxford.[7] In 1765-66 he travelled in France, Switzerland and Italy with Patrick Brydone and William Beckford of Somerley,[8] and was in Rome with Beckford in 1770 when they travelled about with Dr Charles Burney, who was collecting materials for a General History of Music.[9] He held livings in Newington, Brasted, Lambeth and Sundridge. He made inquiries on Dr. Samuel Johnson's behalf in search of Johnson's relatives around Lichfield, at the time when the Doctor was making his will in 1784.[10]

His younger brother Richard was a General, and Comptroller of the Household of the Duke of Cumberland.[11][12] His sister, Mary (1745-1827), married the Right Revd. Spencer Madan, Lord Bishop of Peterborough, and was buried at Lichfield in the same vault as her brother General Richard Vyse.[13] Their sister Catherine in 1768 became the second wife of Sir George Smith, 1st Bart., was widowed in the following year, and died in 1786.[14]

Notes

  1. ^ 'Deaths' The Morning Post (London, England), Thursday, February 22, 1816; Issue 14069
  2. ^ 'Obituary of Eminent Persons', Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 86 Part 1 (1816), p. 275 (Google).
  3. ^ 'Archdeacons : Coventry', in J.M. Horn (ed.), Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857, Vol. 10: Coventry and Lichfield Diocese (London 2003), pp. 8-9 (British History Online).
  4. ^ 'Chancellors', in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541-1857, Vol. 10, pp. 20-22.
  5. ^ S. Erdeswicke (ed. T. Harwood), A Survey of Staffordshire: Containing the Antiquities of that County New, improved edition (J.B. Nichols and Son, London 1844), pp. 120-21 (Google).
  6. ^ CCED
  7. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Vyse, William (2)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  8. ^ 'No. V. Patrick Brydone, Esq.', The Annual Biography and Obituary, Vol. 4 (1820), pp. 85-111, at p. 86 (Google).
  9. ^ E. Poole (ed.), Music, Men, and Manners in France and Italy, 1770: being the Journal written by Charles Burney during a tour through those countries undertaken to collect material for a General History of Music (Eulenberg Books, London 1980), pp. 130-32.
  10. ^ E. Malone (ed.), The Life of Samuel Johnson..., by James Boswell, Esq., 5th, Revised and Augmented Edition, 4 vols (T. Cadell and W. Davies, London 1807), IV, p. 437-38, note 6 (Google).
  11. ^ 'General Richard Vyse', Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 95 Part 2 (1825), p. 180 (Google)
  12. ^ 'Succession of Colonels: Richard Vyse', in Historical Records of the Third, or Prince of Wales's Regiment of Dragoon Guards (By Command, London 1838), pp. 127-28 (Internet Archive).
  13. ^ W. Newling and J.C. Woodhouse, A Short Account of Lichfield Cathedral, Fourth Edition, with additions and an engraving (T.G. Lomax, Lichfield 1834), pp. 81-83 (Google).
  14. ^ B. Redford (ed.), The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Vol II: 1773-1776 (Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey 1992), p. 222 note 3 (Google), citing A.L. Reade, Johnsonian Gleanings, Vol. 5: The Doctor's Life, 1728-1735 (London 1928), p. 211; Vol. 11: Consolidated Index of Persons (London 1952), p. 436.


Stub icon

This biography of a United Kingdom religious figure is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.