Anthony à Wood
| Anthony Wood | |
|---|---|
| Born |
17 December 1632 Oxford, England |
| Died | 28 November 1695 (aged 62) Oxford, England |
| Resting place | Merton College, Oxford |
| Nationality | English |
| Other names | Anthony à Wood |
| Education | New College School, Oxford; Lord Williams's School, Thame; Merton College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Antiquary |
| Employer | University of Oxford |
| Awards | MA (Oxford, 1655) |
Anthony Wood (17 December 1632 – 28 November 1695), who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary.
Anthony Wood was born in Oxford on 17 December 1632. He was the fourth son of Thomas Wood (1581–1643), BCL of Oxford, and his second wife, Mary (1602–1667), daughter of Robert Pettie and Penelope Taverner.
Wood was sent to New College School in 1641, and at the age of twelve was removed to the free Lord Williams's School at Thame, where his studies were interrupted by Civil War skirmishes. He was then placed under the tuition of his brother Edward (1627–1655), of Trinity College, and, as he tells us, "while he continued in this condition his mother would alwaies be soliciting him to be an apprentice which he could never endure to heare of". He was entered at Merton College in 1647, and made .
In 1652 Wood amused himself with ploughing and bell-ringing. "Having had from his most tender years an extraordinary ravishing delight in music", he began to teach himself the violin and took his BA examinations. He engaged a music-master and obtained permission to use the Bodleian, "which he took to be the happiness of his life". He received the MA degree in 1655, and in the following year published a volume of sermons by his late brother Edward.
Wood began systematically to copy monumental inscriptions and to search for antiquities in the city and neighbourhood. He went through the Christ Church registers, "at this time being resolved to set himself to the study of antiquities." Dr John Wallis, the keeper, allowed him free access to the university registers in 1660; "here he layd the foundation of that book which was fourteen years afterwards published, viz. Hist. et Antiq. Univ. Oxon". He also came to know the Oxford collections of Brian Twyne to which he was greatly indebted, and those of the assiduous antiquary Ralph Sheldon. He steadily investigated the muniments of all the colleges, and in 1667 made his first journey to London, where he visited William Dugdale, who introduced him into the Cottonian Library, and William Prynne showed him the same civility for the Tower records.
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