Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wadsworth, James (1572?-1623)
WADSWORTH, JAMES (1572?–1623), divine and jesuit, was elected scholar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 12 March 1584, admitted sizar in 1585, and graduated M.A. in 1593, B.D. in 1600 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. App. p. 417). He was instituted in 1598 to the rectory of Pakefield (All Saints') in Suffolk (Suckling, Hist. of Suffolk, i. 285), and from 1600 he held in addition, at any rate until 1603, the livings of Cotton and Thornham Magna in the same county (Davy's ‘Suffolk Collections’ in Addit. MSS. 19089 f. 113, 19090 f. 180). He was also chaplain in ordinary to Dr. Redman, bishop of Norwich. He married while in Suffolk, and had issue four children. According to his son he was ‘perverted’ in 1604. In May 1605 he accompanied Sir Charles Cornwallis [q. v.] to Spain as chaplain; his brother Paul was consul in Andalusia (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1644–5, p. 210). At Valladolid James fell under jesuit influence, and in August of the same year left the ambassador's house under pretext of a visit to the university of Salamanca, and never returned. Cornwallis, in letters to the Earl of Salisbury, 15 Sept. 1605 (Winwood, Memorials, ii. 109, 131, 136), suggests that ‘perhaps through discontent of a shrewd wife, a burthen of children, and a benefice unequal to his desires, he brought his purpose out of England.’ Wadsworth became an officer of the inquisition in Seville, receiving from the king of Spain a pension of forty ducats a month. Five years later, in 1610, his wife and children arrived, and also joined the catholic faith. From 1615 to 1620 Wadsworth engaged in correspondence with his early college friend and neighbour in a Suffolk parsonage, William Bedell [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Kilmore, in support of his new beliefs. The argument is published in the rare ‘Copies of certain Letters which have passed between Spain and England in Matter of Religion,’ London, 1624, 4to. Reprinted in Gilbert Burnet's ‘Life of Bedell,’ London, 1692, 8vo; Dublin, 1736, 8vo. His interesting correspondence with Sir Robert Phelips [q. v.], chiefly about the Spanish match, from 1618 has not been published (Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. App. xviii. 282, 284). Wadsworth became steward or agent to Sir Robert Shirley [q. v.], and, on the proposed Spanish match, was appointed English tutor to the Infanta Maria. In a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, written from Madrid, 11 Nov. 1623 (Goodman, Court of James I, ed. 1839, ii. 319), he reports that his pupil ‘proceeds very cheerfully to learn English.’ ‘A Grammar, Spanish and English,’ London, 1622, 8vo, of which Professor Knapp owns a copy, may have been prepared by Wadsworth for the infanta previous to this time. Wadsworth died of consumption on 30 Nov. 1623, and was buried at Madrid.
[T. W. Jones's Life of Bedell (Camden Soc.), 1872, p. 95; The English Spanish Pilgrim, by the son, James Wadsworth, 1629, 4to; Strype's Annals, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 421.]