OLDSWORTH. [See Oldisworth.]
OLDYS or OLDIS, VALENTINE (1620–1685), poet, son of Valentine Oldis, was born in 1620, and educated at Cambridge. He was made M.D. of Cambridge per literas regias on 6 Oct. 1671, and honorary member of the College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1680. He died in 1686, and was buried near his father in Great St. Helen's, by St. Mary Axe. Oldis published 'A Poem on the Restoration of King Charles,' 1660, fol., and was a patron of literature and men of letters. He is among the contributors of commendatory verses to Henry Bold's 'Poems Lyrique, Macaronique, Heroique, &c.,' London, 1664, and has one of the poems in the volume addressed to him. He also contributed to Alexander Brome's 'Songs, and other Poems,' London, 1664. John Phillips dedicated to Oldis his 'Macaronides: or Virgil Travesty,' London, 1673.
[Memoirs of the Family of Oldys, Birch MS. (Brit. Mus.); Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 415; Corser's Collectanea Anglo-Poetica, iv. 1., 34, 36; Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, xxiii. 339.]
OLDYS, WILLIAM (1696–1781), Norroy king-of-arms and antiquary, born, according to his own statement, on 14 July 1696, probably in London, was the natural son of Dr. William Oldys (1636–1708), an eminent civil lawyer.
The antiquary's grandfather, William Oldys (1591?–1645), born about 1591 at Whitwell, Dorset, was a scholar of Winchester College from 1605, and subsequently graduated from New College, Oxford (B.A. 1614, M.A. 1618, B.D. 1626, D.D. 1643). He was proctor in the university in 1623, and vicar of Adderbury, Oxfordshire, from 1627 till his death. As a devoted royalist be rendered himself during the civil war obnoxious to the supporters of the parliament in his neighbourhood, and, fearful of their threats, he concealed himself for a time in Banbury. In 1645 he met by arrangement his wife and a son, when on a journey either to Winchester or Oxford, and resolved to ride a part of the way with them. Some parliamentary soldiers had, however, learnt of his intention, and intercepted him on the road. He fled before them in the direction of Adderbury, but when be arrived in front of his own house, his horse consequently overtook him, and shot him dead (Walker, Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 323). A tablet in the chancel of Adderbury Church bears a long Latin inscription to his memory. He married Margaret (d. 1705), daughter of the Rev. Ambrose Sacheverell, and left eleven children (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 54, Bresley, Hist. of Banbury, pp. 397, 604).
Of these, William the civilian, born at Adderbury in 1636, gained a scholarship at Winchester in 1648, was fellow of New College from 1655 to 1671 (B.C.L. 1661, D.C.L. 1667), and was admitted an advocate of Doctors' Commons in 1670. He became advocate of the admiralty and chancellor of the diocese of Lincoln. He was removed from the former office in 1693 for refusing to pronounce the sailors acting against England under the orders of James if guilty of treason and piracy (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 417). He unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary representation of Oxford University in 1705, and contributed the life of Pompey to the co-operative translation of Plutarch (1683-6), in which Dryden took port. He died at Kensington in 1708. His 'great library' was purchased by the College of Advocates at Doctors' Commons, whose books were finally dispersed by sale ill 1861. He was unmarried, but he 'maintained a mistress in a very penurious and private manner' (Coote, English Civilians, 1804, p. 95). In his will he devised 'to his loving cozen, Mrs. Ann Oldys, his two houses at Kensington, with the residue of property,' and appointed 'the said Ann Oldys 'whole and sole' executrix of his will. Ann Oldys was the mother of the future king-of-arms. By her will, proved in 1711, she gave, after two or three trifling bequests, 'all her estate, real and personal, to her loving friend Benjamin Jackman, of the said Kensington, upon trust, for the benefit of her son William Oldys,' and she left to Jackman the tuition and guardianship of her son during his minority.
After the death of his parents, William the antiquary made his way in life by his own abilities. In 1720 he was one of the sufferers in the South Sea bubble, and was thus involved in a long and expensive lawsuit. In 1724 he removed to Yorkshire, leaving his books and manuscripts in the care of Burridge, his landlord. The next six years he chiefly spent at the seat of the first Earl of Malton, a friend of his youth. Oldys was at Leeds soon after the death of Ralph Thoresby the antiquary in 1726, and paid a visit to his celebrated museum (Oldys, Life of Raleigh, 1736, p. xxxi). He remained in
