William Napier, and sister of Sir Joseph Napier (1804-1882), lord chancellor of Ireland.
See J. R. O'Flanagan, The Irish Bar (London, 1879).
WHITETHROAT, a name commonly given to two species of little birds, one of which, the Motacilla sylvia of Linnaeus and Sylvia rufa or S. cinerea of recent authors, is regarded as the type, not only of the genus Sylvia, but of the sub-family of thrushes known as Sylviinae (cf. Warbler). Very widely spread over Great Britain, in some places tolerably common, and by its gesticulations and song rather conspicuous, it is one of those birds which have gained a familiar nickname, and “peggy whitethroat” is the anthropomorphic appellation of schoolboys and milkmaids, though it shares “nettle-creeper” and other homely names with perhaps more than one congener, while to the writers and readers of books it is by way of distinction the greater whitethroat. The lesser whitethroat, Sylvia curruca, is both in habits and plumage a much less sightly bird: the predominant reddish brown of the upper surface, and especially the rufous edging of the wing-feathers, that are so distinctive of its larger congener, are wanting, and the whole plumage above is of a smoky-grey, while the bird in its movements is never obtrusive, and it rather shuns than courts observation. The nests of each of these species are very pretty works of art, firmly built of bents or other plant-stalks, and usually lined with horsehair; but the sides are often so finely woven as to be like open basket-work, and the eggs, splashed, spotted or streaked with olive-brown, are frequently visible from beneath through the interstices of the fabric. This style of nest-building seems to be common to all the species of the genus Sylvia, as now restricted, and in many districts has obtained for the builders the name of “hay-jack,” quite without reference to the kind of bird which puts the nests together, and thus is also applied to the blackcap, S. atricapilla, and the garden-warbler—this last being merely a book-name—S. salicaria (S. hortensis of some writers). The former of these deserves mention as one of the sweetest songsters of Great Britain. The name blackcap is applicable only the cock bird, who further differs from his brown-capped mate by the purity of his ashy-grey upper plumage; but, notwithstanding the marked sexual difference in appearance, he takes on himself a considerable share of the duties of incubation. All these four birds, as a rule, leave Great Britain at the end of summer to winter in the south. Two other species, one certainly belonging to the same genus, S. orphea, and the other, S. nisoria, a somewhat aberrant form, have occurred two or three times in Great Britain. The curious Dartford warbler of English writers, Sylvia undata, is on many accounts a very interesting bird, for it is one of the few of its family that winter in England—a fact the more remarkable when it is known to be migratory in most parts of the continent of Europe. Its distribution in England is very local, and chiefly confined to the southern counties. It is a pretty little dark-coloured bird, which here and there may be seen on furze-grown heaths from Kent to Cornwall. For a species with wings so feebly formed it has a wide range, inhabiting nearly all the countries of the Mediterranean seaboard, from Palestine to the Strait of Gibraltar, and thence along the west coast of Europe to the English Channel; but everywhere else it seems to be very local.
This may be the most convenient place for noticing the small group of warblers belonging to the well-marked genus Hypolais, which, though in general appearance and certain habits resembling the Phylloscopi (cf. [willow] Wren), would seem usually to have little to do with those birds, and to be rather allied to the Sylviinae. They have a remarkably loud song, and in consequence are highly valued on the continent of Europe, where two species at least spend the summer. One of them, H. icterina, has occurred more than once in the British Islands, and their absence as regular visitors is to be regretted. Among the minor characteristics of this little group is one afforded by their eggs, which are of a deeper or paler brownish pink, spotted with purplish black. Their nests are beautiful structures, combining warmth with lightness in a way that cannot be fully appreciated by any description. (A. N.)
WHITFIELD, JOHN CLARKE (1770-1836), English organist and composer, was born at Gloucester on the 13th of December 1770, and educated at Oxford under Dr Philip Hayes. In 1789 he was appointed organist of the parish church at Ludlow. Four years later he took the degree of Mus. Bac. at Cambridge, and in 1795 he was chosen organist of Armagh cathedral, whence he removed in the same year to Dublin, with the appointments of organist and master of the children at St Patrick's cathedral and Christchurch. Driven from Ireland by the rebellion of 1798, he accepted the post of organist at Trinity and St John's Colleges, Cambridge, and about the same time assumed the surname of Whitfield, in addition to that of Clarke, by which he had been previously known. He took the degree of Mus. Doc. at Cambridge in 1799, and in 1810 proceeded to the same grade at Oxford. In 1520 he was elected organist and master of the choristers at Hereford cathedral; and on the death of Dr Haig he was appointed professor of music at Cambridge. Three years afterwards he resigned these appointments in consequence of an attack of paralysis, He died at Hereford, on the 22nd of February 1836.
Whitfield's compositions were very numerous. Among the best of them are four volumes of anthems, published in 1805. He also composed a great number of songs, one of which—“Bird of the Wilderness,” written to some well-known verses by James Hogg, the “Ettrick Shepherd”—attained a high degree of popularity. But the great work of his life was the publication, in a popular and eminently useful form, of the oratorios of Handel, which he was the first to present to the public with a complete pianoforte accompaniment.
WHITGIFT, JOHN (c. 1530-1604), English archbishop, was the eldest son of Henry Whitgift, merchant of Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, where he was born, according to one account in 1533, but according to a calculation founded on a statement of his own in 1530. At an early age his education was entrusted to his uncle, Robert Whitgift, abbot of the neighbouring monastery of Wellow, by whose advice he was afterwards sent to St Anthony's school, London. In 1549 he matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge, and in May 1550 he migrated to Pembroke Hall, where he had the martyr John Bradford for a tutor. In May 1559 he became a fellow of Peterhouse. Having taken orders in 1560, he became in the same year chaplain to Richard Cox, bishop of Ely, who collated him to the rectory of Teversham, Cambridgeshire. In 1563 he was appointed Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge, and his lectures gave such satisfaction to the authorities that on the 5th of July 1566 they considerably augmented his stipend. The following year he was appointed regius professor of divinity, and also became master first of Pembroke Hall and then of Trinity. He had a principal share in compiling the statutes of the university, which passed the great seal on the 25th of September 1570, and in November following he was chosen vice-chancellor. Macaulay's description of Whitgift as “a narrow, mean, tyrannical priest, who gained power by servility and adulation,” is tinged with rhetorical exaggeration; but undoubtedly Whitgift's extreme High Church notions led him to treat the Puritans with exceptional intolerance. In a pulpit controversy with Thomas Cartwright, regarding the constitutions and customs of the Church cf England, he showed himself Cartwright's inferior in oratorical effectiveness, but the balance was redressed by the exercise of arbitrary authority. Whitgift, with other heads of the university, deprived Cartwright in 1570 of his professorship, and in September 1571 exercised his prerogative as master of Trinity to deprive him of his fellowship. In June of the same year Whitgift was nominated dean of Lincoln. In the following year he published An Answere to a Certain Libel intituted an Admonition to the Parliament, which led to further controversy between the two divines. On the 24th of March 1577, Whitgift was appointed bishop of Worcester, and during the absence of Sir Henry Sidney in Ireland (1577) he acted as vice-president of Wales. In August 1583 he was appointed archbishop of Canterbury, and thus was largely instrumental in giving its special complexion to the church of the Reformation. Although he wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth remonstrating against the alienation of church property, Whitgift always retained her special confidence. In his policy against the Puritans, and in his vigorous enforcement of the subscription test, he thoroughly carried out the queen's policy of religious uniformity. He drew up articles aimed at
