in the submission of Guthrum in 878. Shortly afterwards the kingdom of the Mercians came to an end and their leading earl Æthelred accepted Alfred's overlordship. By 886 Alfred's authority was admitted in all the provinces of England which were not under Danish rule. From this time onwards the history of Wessex is the history of England.
Kings of Wessex.
| Cerdic | 519 | Æthelheard | 728 (726) |
| Cynric | 534 | Cuthred | 741 (740) |
| Ceawlin | 560 (c. 571) | Sigeberht | 754 (756) |
| Ceol | 592 (c. 588) | Cynewulf | 755 (757) |
| Ceolwulf | 597 (c. 594) | Berhtric | 784 (786) |
| Cynegils | 611 | Ecgbert | 800 (802) |
| Cenwalh | 643 (c. 642) | Æthelwulf | 836 (839) |
| Sexburh | 672 (c. 673) | Æthelbald | 855 (858) |
| Æscwine | 674 | Æthelberht | 860 |
| Centwine | 676 | Æthelred | 866 |
| Ceadwalla | 685 | Alfred | 871 |
| Ine | 688 |
The dates are those of the annals in the Chronicle with approximate corrections in brackets.
See Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, edited by Earle and Plummer (Oxford, 1892–1899); Bede, Hist. Eccl. and Continuatio, edited by C. Plummer (Oxford, 1896); “Annales Lindisfarnenses,” in the Monumenta Germ. hist. xix. 502–508 (Hanover, 1866); Asser, Life of King Alfred, edited by W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904); W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum (London, 1885–1893). (F. G. M. B.)
WEST, BENJAMIN (1738–1820), English historical and
portrait-painter, was born on the 10th of October 1738, at
Springfield, Pennsylvania, of an old Quaker family from
Buckinghamshire. When a boy of seven he began to show
his inclinations to art. According to a well-known story, he
was sitting by the cradle of his sister’s child, watching its sleep,
when the infant happened to smile in its dreams, and, struck
with its beauty, young Benjamin got some paper, and drew its
portrait. The career thus begun was prosecuted amid many
difficulties; but his perseverance overcame every obstacle, and
at the age of eighteen he settled in Philadelphia as a portrait-painter.
After two years he removed to New York, where
he practised his profession with considerable success. In 1760,
through the assistance of some friends, he was enabled to complete
his artistic education by a trip to Italy, where he remained
nearly three years. Here he acquired reputation, and was elected
a member of the principal academies of Italy. On the expiry
of his Italian visit he settled in London as an historical painter.
His success was not long doubtful. George III. took him under
his special patronage; and commissions flowed in upon him
from all quarters. In 1768 he was one of the four artists who
submitted to the king the plan for a royal academy, of which
he was one of the earliest members; and in 1772 he was appointed
historical painter to the king. He devoted his attention mainly
to the painting of large pictures on historical and religious
subjects, conceived, as he believed, in the style of the old masters,
and executed with much great care and much taste. So high did he
stand in public favour that on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
in 1792, he was elected his successor as president of the Royal
Academy, an office which he held for twenty-eight years. In
1802 he took advantage of the opportunity afforded by the
peace of Amiens to visit Paris, and inspect the magnificent
collection of the masterpieces of art, pillaged from the gallery
of almost every capital in Europe, which then adorned the Louvre. On his return to London he devoted himself anew to the labours of his profession, which were, however, somewhat broken in upon by quarrels with some of the members of the Royal Academy. In 1804 he resigned his office, but an all but unanimous request that he should return to the chair induced him to recall his resignation. Time did not at all weaken the energy with which he laboured at his easel. When sixty-five he painted one of his largest works, “Christ healing the Sick.” This was originally designed to be presented to the Quakers in Philadelphia, to assist in erecting a hospital. On its completion it was exhibited in London to immense crowds,and was purchased by the British Institution for 3000 guineas, West sending a replica to Philadelphia. His subsequent works were nearly all on the same grand scale as the picture which had been so successful, but
they did not meet with very ready sale. He died in London on the 11th of March 1820, and was buried in St Paul’s.
West’s works, which fond criticism ranked during his life with the great productions of the great masters, are now considered as in general formal, tame, wanting that freedom of nature and that life which genius alone can breathe into the canvas. His “Death of Wolfe” is interesting as introducing modern costume instead of the classical draperies which had been previously universal in similar subjects by English artists; and his “Battle of La Hogue” is entitled to an honourable place among British historical paintings.
An account of West’s life was published by Galt (The Progress of Genius, 1816). See also H. T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists (N. Y., 1868).
WEST, NICHOLAS (1461-1553), English bishop and diplomatist, was born in Putney, and educated at Eton and at King’s College Cambridge, of which he became fellow in 1483. He was soon ordained and appointed rector of Egglescliffe, Durham, receiving a little later two other living and becoming chaplain to King Henry VII. In 1509 Henry VIII appointed him dean bishop of Ely. West’s long and successful career as a diplomatist began in 1502 through his friendship with Richard Fox, bishop of Durham, In the interests of Henry VII he visited the German king Maximilian I and George, duke of Saxony, in 1506 he negotiated an important commercial treaty with Flanders, and he attempted to arrange marriages between the king’s daughter Mary and the future emperor Charles V, and between the king himself and Charles’s sister Margaret. By Henry VIII West was sent many times to Scotland and to France. Occupied mainly during 1513 and 1514 with journeys to and from Scotland, he visited Louis XII of France in the autumn of 1514 and his successor Francis I in 1515. In 1515 also he arranged a defensive treaty between England and France, and he was principally responsible for treaties concluded between the two countries in 1518 and 1525 and at other times. He was trusted and employed on personal matters b Cardinal Wolsey. He died on 28th of April 1533. The bishop built two beautiful chapels, one in Putney church and the other in Ely cathedral, where he is buried.
WESTALL, RICHARD (1765–1836), English subject painter, was born in Hertford in 1765, of a Norwich family. In 1779 he went to London, and was apprenticed to an engraver on silver, and in 1785 he began to study in the schools of the Royal Academy. He painted “Esau seeking Jacob’s Blessing,” “Mary Queen of Scots going to Execution” and other historical subjects in water-colour, and some good portraits in the same medium, but he is mainly known as a book-illustrator. He produced five subjects for the Shakespeare Gallery, illustrated an edition of Milton, executed a very popular series of illustrations to the Bible and the prayer-book, and designed plates for numerous other works. In 1808 he published a poem, A Day in Spring, illustrated by his own pencil. His designs are rather tame, mannered and effeminate. He became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1792, and a full member in 1794; and during his later years he was a pensioner of the Academy. He died on the 4th of December 1836. His brother, William Westall, A.R.A. (1781–1850), landscape painter, is mainly known by his illustrations to works of travel.
WESTBORO, a township of Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 12 m. E. of Worcester. Pop. (1890) 5195; (1900) 5400 (1127 being foreign-born); 1905, state census) 5378; (1910) 5446. Westboro is served by the Boston & Albany railway and by interurban electric lines. Area, about 22 sq. m. It has a public library, which has belonged to the township since 1857; and here are the Lyman School for Boys, a state industrial institution (opened in 1886 and succeeding a state reform school in 1846), and the Westboro Insane Hospital (homeopathic, 1884), which is under the general supervision of the State Board of Insanity. There are manufactures of boots and shoes, straw and leather goods, carpets, &c. Westboro was the birthplace of Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin. The first settlement here was made about 1659 in a part of Marlboro called Chauncy (because of a grant of 500 acres here to Charles Chauncy, president
