Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wodenote, Theophilus
WODENOTE, THEOPHILUS (d. 1662), royalist divine, born at Linkinhorne, near Launceston, Cornwall, was son of Thomas Wodenote, M.A., fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and vicar of that parish, who was descended from the Wodenoths or Woodnoths of Cheshire [see Wodenoth, Arthur]. His mother was Francisca, daughter of Henry Clifford of Boscombe, Wiltshire. He was educated at Eton school, and was elected in 1606 to King's College, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship. He proceeded M.A. in due course, and was incorporated in that degree at Oxford on 13 July 1619 (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 390). He graduated B.D. at Cambridge in 1623, and was created D.D. in 1630. He was vicar of Linkinhorne from 1619 to 1651, when he was sequestered from his benefice on account of his adherence to the royalist cause. He was restored to his vicarage in 1660, and was buried at Linkinhorne on 1 Oct. 1662.
He married at Linkinhorne, in 1615, Mary, daughter of James Spicer of St. Gorran, ‘who came out of the East Countrey.’ His son Theophilus was matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1652, and, like his father, furnished John Aubrey [q. v.] with notes for his ‘Brief Lives’ (ed. Clark, i. 139, 245, 281, 308, ii. 203, 307).
His principal works were: 1. ‘Hermes Theologus: or a Divine Mercurie dispatcht with a grave Message of New Descants upon Old Records,’ London, 1649, 12mo, edited with a preface by the Rev. Edward Simmons. There is a portrait of Wodenote in the engraved title-page. 2. ‘Good Thoughts in Bad Times,’ London, 1652? Wood says this manual was written at Broad Chalk, Wiltshire, while the author ‘absconded in the house of a near relation of his (vicar of that place), being then obnoxious to arrests.’ 3. ‘Eremicus Theologus; or a Sequestred Divine his Aphorisms or Breviats of Speculations,’ London, 1654, 8vo.
[Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 5524 f. 156 b; Arber's Reg. of Stationers' Company, 1877, iv. 90; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornubiensis; Cole's Hist. of King's Coll. Cambridge, iii. 51; Visitation of Cornwall, 1620 (Harl. Soc.), p. 266; Life of Nicholas Ferrar (Mayor), pp. 179, 355; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714; Granger's Biogr. Hist. of England, 5th edit. ii. 73; Harwood's Alumni Eton. pp. 177, 211; Pref. to Hermes Theologus; Kennett's Register, p. 231; Walker's Sufferings, ii. 392.]