WILLOCK (or Willocks), JOHN (c. 1513-1585), Scottish reformer, was a native of Ayrshire and was educated at the university of Glasgow. After being a monk for a short time he embraced the reformed religion and went to London, where, about 1542, he became chaplain to Henry Grey, afterwards duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey. On the accession of Mary to the English throne in 1553 he went to Emden in Friesland, where he practised as a physician, varying this profession with visits to Scotland. He was associated with the leading Scottish reformers in their opposition to the queen regent, Mary of Lorraine, and the Roman Catholic religion, and in 1558 he returned definitely to his native land. Willock now began to preach and in 1559 was outlawed. Popular sympathy, however, rendered this sentence fruitless, and in the same year, being Knox's deputy as minister of St Giles' cathedral, Edinburgh, he frustrated the efforts of the regent to restore the Roman Catholic religion, and administered the communion for the first time in accordance with the ideas of the reformers. He was one of the four ministers chosen by the convention of October 1559 to seats on the council of government, and was one of those appointed to compile the first book of discipline. About 1562 he became rector of Loughborough in Leicestershire, but he retained his connexion with the Scottish church and was moderator of the general assembly in 1562, and again in 1564, in 1565 and in 1568. He died at Loughborough on the 4th of December 1585.
WILLOUGHBY, the name of an English family long settled in Nottinghamshire, and now represented by Baron Middleton. Having exchanged his name of Bugge for that of Willoughby, Richard de Willoughby became a judge during the reign of Edward II. and purchased the manors of Wollaton in Nottinghamshire and of Risley in Derbyshire. His son, Richard de Willoughby (d. 1362), was justice of the common pleas under Edward III. Richard's descendant, Dorothy, who became the heiress of the family estates, married Robert Willoughby of Bore Place, Kent, and their descendant, Sir Thomas Willoughby, Bart. (c. 1670-1729), of Wollaton, was created Baron Middleton in 1712. In 1877 his descendant, Digby Wentworth Bayard Willoughby (b. 1844), became the 9th baron. This title must be distinguished from that of Viscount Midleton, borne by the Brodrick family.
Sir Hugh Willoughby, the seaman, was a member of this family. He was a son of Sir Henry Willoughby (d. 1528), and a grandson of Sir Hugh Willoughby of Wollaton. His early services were as a soldier on the Scottish borders, but he soon turned his thoughts to the sea, and was appointed captain of a fleet of three ships which set out in 1553 with the object of discovering a north-eastern passage to Cathay and India. Two of the three ships reached the coast of Lapland, where it was proposed to winter, and here Willoughby and his companions died of cold and starvation soon after January 1554. A few years later their remains were found, and with them Willoughby's Journal, which is printed in vol. i. of R. Hakluyt's Principal Navigations.
Another famous member of this family was Sir Nesbit Josiah Willoughby (1777-1849), who entered the British navy in 1790 and was present at the battle of Copenhagen. In 1800, however, he was dismissed from the service by the sentence of a court-martial for his insolent conduct towards a superior officer, a previous offence of this kind having been punished less severely. In 1803, on the renewal of war, as a volunteer he joined an English squadron bound for the West Indies, and was soon admitted again to the navy; his courage and promptness at Cape Français were responsible for saving 900 lives, and he distinguished himself on other occasions, being soon restored to his former rank in the service. After further services in the West Indies, during which he displayed marked gallantry on several occasions, Willoughby was tried by court-martial at Cape Town in 1808 on charges of cruelty; he seems to have taken a great delight in inflicting punishment, but he was acquitted with the advice to be more moderate in future in his language. Again in the West Indies, where he commanded the Néréide frigate, he was responsible for the heroic defence made by his ship against a much stronger French force at Port Louis, Mauritius, in August 1810, when 222 out of his crew of 281 men were disabled before he surrendered. Undeterred by the severe wounds which he had received, and seeing no prospect of active service with the British fleet, Willoughby offered his services in 1812 to the Russian government, and while serving with the Russian army he was captured by the French. He was taken to France, whence he escaped to England. Having seen a little more service in the navy, he was knighted in 1827, was made a rear-admiral in 1847, and died unmarried in London on the 19th of May 1849.
WILLOW (Salix), a very well-marked genus of plants constituting, with the poplar (Populus), the order Salicaceae. Willows are trees or shrubs, varying in stature from a few inches, like the small British S. herbacea and arctic species generally, to 100 ft., and occurring most abundantly in cold or temperate climates in both hemispheres, and generally in moist situations; a few species occur in the tropical and sub-tropical portions of the three great continents. Their leaves are deciduous, alternate, simple, and generally much longer than broad, whence the term willow-leaved has become proverbial. At their base they are provided with stipules, which are also modified to form the scales investing the winter buds. The flowers are borne in catkins (fig. 1), which are on one tree male (staminate) only, on another female (pistillate). Each male flower consists of a small scale or bract, in the axil of which are usually two, sometimes three, rarely five stamens, and still more rarely a larger number. In addition there is a small glandular disk, which assumes different shapes in different species. The female flowers are equally simple, consisting of a bract, from whose axil arises usually a very short stalk, surmounted by two carpels adherent one to the other for their whole length, except that the upper ends of the styles are separated into two stigmas. When ripe the two carpels separate in the form of two valves and liberate a large number of seeds, each provided at the base with a tuft of silky hairs, and containing a straight embryo without any investing albumen. The flowers appear generally before the leaves and are thus rendered more conspicuous, while passage of pollen by the wind is facilitated. Fertilization is effected by insects, especially by bees, which are directed in their search by the colour and fragrance of the
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Fig. 1.—Salix caprea—Common Sallow or Goat Willow. | |
| 1. Leaf shoot. 2. Branchlet bearing male catkins. 3. Male flower. |
4. Female catkin. 5. Female flower. 6. Capsule, opened. 7. Seed. |
1, 2, 4 reduced; 3, 5-7 enlarged.
