to Canaan' (1609) and 'The Historie of Balak the King and Balaam the false Prophet' (1610). These, with others of the same kind, all in quarto, were, severally, expositions of portions of the book of Numbers, and were ultimately brought together in a noble folio of 1300 pages in 1618. In the quartos and folio alike there is abundant evidence of wide if somewhat undigested learning, penetrative insight, and felicitous application in the most unexpected ways of old facts and truths to present-day circumstances and experiences. All this applies especially to his 'New Covenant' (1614), and to his next important work, which reached a second edition in 1633, viz. 'A Commentarie upon the Epistle of Saint Pavle to Philemon Written by William Attersoll, Minister of the Word of God, at Isfield in Sussex. The second edition, corrected and enlarged' (1633). It is this volume that has been wrongly assigned to William Aspinwall [q. v]. In 1632 Attersoll published a volume called the 'Conversion of Nineveh.' In the Epistle-dedicatory to Sir John Rivers he writes of himself as an old man: 'Having heretofore upon sundry occasions divulged sundry bookes which are abroad in the world, whereby I received much encouragement, I resolved, notwithstanding being now in yeares, and as it were donatus rude (Horat. lib. i. epist. 1), preparing for a nunc dimittis, utterly to give over and to enjoyne myselfe a perpetuall silence touching this kind of writing, and content myselfe with performing the other more necessary duty of teaching. Nevertheless, being requested, or rather importuned, by friends to publish some things which had been a long time by mee ... I deliuered into their hands these three treatises.' The other two treatises (besides 'Nineveh') are 'God's Trvmpet sovnding the Alarme' (1632)and 'Phisicke against Famine, or a Soueraigne Preseruatiue' (1632).
As shown by the Isfield Register, Attersoll was buried '30 May 1640,' and thus had remained in his original 'poore liuing' for upwards of forty years. He describes himself as 'a poore labourer in the Lord's vineyard, and a simple watchman in his house.' He also speaks of 'the poore cottage' in which he resided (Ep. to Nineveh). His works are now extremely rare.
Another William Attersoll, probably his son, proceeded A.B. 1611, A.M. 1615 at Peterhouse; and a third of the same names proceeded A.B. 1672 at Catherine Hall. In all likelihood the former was the William Attersoll of Calamy, whose name is simply entered under 'Hoadley (East), Sussex,' as among the ejected of 1662, and so, too, in Palmer's 'Nonconformist's Memorial' (iii. 320).
[Information from Rev. S. F. Russell. M.A. Isfield; H. R. Luard, LL D., and W. Aldis Wright, LL.D. Cambridge; Kippis's Biog. Brit. s. 'Fanshawe;' Attersoll's works.]
ATTWOOD, THOMAS (1765–1838), musician, born in London, 23 Nov. 1765, was the son of a coal merchant. When nine years old he was admitted as a chorister to the Chapel Royal, where he attracted the attention of the Prince of Wales (George IV), who invited him to Buckingham House, and was so pleased by his pianoforte playing and musical talent that in 1783 he sent him to Naples to study under Cinque and Latilla. From Naples Attwood went (1785) to Vienna, where he studied under Mozart, who expressed a favourable opinion of his talent. He left Vienna in company with the Storaces in February 1787. Shortly after his return to London he was appointed music master to the Duchess of York; he also subsequently occupied the same post with the Duchess of Cumberland and the Princess of Wales. In the following year (1792) he produced a musical afterpiece, 'The Prisoner,' at the Opera House, where the Drury Lane company was then performing. This was the first of several similar pieces he composed; in all his writings for the stage, after the fashion of the time, he eked out his own music by considerable interpolations from the works of other composers, particularly those of Mozart and Cherubini. In 1793 Attwood married Mary, the only child of Matthew Denton, of Stotfold, Bedfordshire. His eldest son, a lieutenant in the army, was assassinated at Madrid in October 1821; another son, after a distinguished career at Cambridge, became in 1837 rector of Framlingham, Suffolk. In 1796, on the death of John Jones, Attwood was appointed organist and vicar choral of St. Paul's, and in June of the same year he succeeded Dr. Dupuis as composer to the Chapel Royal. For the coronation of George IV (19 July 1821) Attwood wrote an anthem, 'I was glad.' In the same year the king appointed him organist of the chapel in the Pavilion, Brighton. He wrote an anthem, 'O Lord, grant the King,' for the coronation of William IV, and had begun another for the coronation of Queen Victoria when he was interrupted by his last illness. On the death of Stafford Smith (1836) he was appointed organist to the Chapel Royal, a post he did not live long to occupy. He was taken ill soon after Christmas 1837, and, preferring some peculiar mode of treating his
