Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wellesley, Henry (1791-1866)
WELLESLEY, HENRY (1791–1866), scholar and antiquary, born in 1791, was the illegitimate son of Richard Colley Wellesley, marquis Wellesley [q. v.] He matriculated on 17 Oct. 1811 from Christ Church, Oxford, where he held a studentship from 1811 to 1828, graduating B.A. in 1816, M.A. in 1818, and B.D. and D.D. in 1847. On 20 June 1816 he became a student at Lincoln's Inn, but having been ordained a minister of the English church he was appointed successively vicar of Flitton-with-Silsoe in Bedfordshire on 5 Sept. 1827, rector of Dunsfold in Surrey on 1 Nov. 1833, and rector of Woodmancote in Sussex on 6 June 1838, resigning the last in 1860. He was also rector of Hurstmonceaux in Sussex at the time of his death. In 1842 he was nominated vice-principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford, and in 1847 was made principal by the Duke of Wellington, then chancellor of the university. While principal he filled the office of university preacher. Wellesley was an accomplished scholar, well read in both ancient and modern literature. He was a member of the Sussex Archæological Society from its foundation in 1846. At the time of his death Wellesley was a curator of the Bodleian Library, of the university galleries, and of the Taylorian Institution. He died at Oxford, unmarried, on 11 Jan. 1866.
Wellesley was the author of ‘Stray Notes on the Text of Shakespeare,’ London, 1865, 8vo. He edited ‘Anthologia Polyglotta; a selection of Versions in various Languages, chiefly from the Greek Anthology,’ London, 1849, 4to; and published ‘Canzone in lode di Bella Donna aggiuntovi un sonetto “fatto per uno ch' era in gran fortuna.” Componimenti Toscani del secolo xiv. dati in luce dal Dottore E. Wellesley,’ Oxford, 1851, 8vo. He also contributed three papers on local antiquities to the ‘Collections’ of the Sussex Archæological Society (iii. 232, v. 277, ix. 107).
[Gent. Mag. 1866, i. 440; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Foster's Index Eccles.; Lincoln's Inn Records, 1896, ii. 68; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Men of the Time, 1865.]