Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Winstanley, Thomas
WINSTANLEY, THOMAS (1749–1823), scholar, born in 1749 at Winstanley in the parish of Wigan, Lancashire, was the son of John Winstanley of Winstanley. He entered Manchester grammar school on 25 June 1765, and matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on 24 March 1768, graduating B.A. on 10 Oct. 1771, M.A. on 17 June 1774, B.D. on 6 Dec. 1798, and D.D. on 11 Dec. of the same year. He was elected a fellow of Hertford College, and on the death of Thomas Warton (1728–1790) [q. v.] he was elected Camden professor of history in 1790. In the same year he was presented by Sir John Honeywood to the living of Steyning in Sussex, which he resigned in 1792. On 17 May 1794 he was collated to the prebendal stall of Caddington Major in St. Paul's Cathedral, which he resigned in 1810, and in 1797 he was elected principal of St. Alban Hall, Oxford, on the death of Francis Randolph. On 3 April 1812 he was instituted vicar of the united parishes of St. Nicholas and St. Clement's, Rochester, and in 1814 he was chosen Laudian professor of Arabic. Winstanley was a distinguished scholar and well versed in modern languages. In 1780 he published at the Clarendon Press ‘Ἀριστοτέλους περἰ Ποιητικῆς: Aristotelis de Poetica Liber’ (Oxford, 8vo), with a Latin version, various readings, an index, and notes. This edition, which was based on the version published in 1623 by Theodore Goulston [q. v.], long remained a text-book in the university. Winstanley also edited the works of Daniel Webb [q. v.], under the title of ‘Miscellanies’ (London, 1802, 4to). Nearly the whole edition was destroyed by fire on 8 Feb. 1808. Winstanley died on 2 Sept. 1823. He had four sons: Thomas, Henry, Frederick, and William. His portrait in oils is in possession of his descendants.
[Gent. Mag. 1823, ii. 643; Setton's Lancashire Authors, 1876; Le Neve's Fasti Eccles. Angl., ed. Hardy; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; Admission Reg. of Manchester School (Chetham Soc.), i. 134–5, ii. 277; Hennessy's Novum Repert. Eccles. Londin.; Foster's Index Eccles.]