WILLIAM

See also:

• WAKE (A.S. wacan, to " wake " or " watch ")
• WAKE, THOMAS (1297-1349)
• WILLIAM WAKE (1657-1737)

WAKE (1657-1737)  , English archbishop, was born at Blandford, Dorset, on the 26th of January 1657, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford . He took orders, and in 1682 went to Paris as chaplain to the ambassador Richard Graham, Viscount Preston (1648-1695) . Here he became acquainted with many of the savants of the capital, and was much interested in French clerical affairs . He also collated some Paris manuscripts of the Greek Testament for John Fell, bishop of Oxford . He returned to England in 1685; in 1688 he became preacher at Gray's Inn, and in 1689 he received a canonry of Christ Church, Oxford . In 1693 he was appointed rector of St James's, Westminster . Ten years later he became dean of Exeter, and in 1705 he was consecrated bishop of Lincoln . He was translated to the see of Canterbury in 1716 on the death of Thomas Tenison . During 1718 he negotiated with leading French churchmen about a projected union of the Gallican and English churches to resist the claims of Rome (see J . H . Lupton, Archbishop Wake and the Project of Union, 1896) . In dealing with nonconformity he was tolerant, and even advocated a revision of the Prayer Book if that would allay the scruples of dissenters .

His writings are numerous, the

chief being his State of the Church and Clergy of England . . . historically deduced (London, 1703) . He died at Lambeth on the 24th of January 1736/7 . Sir Isaac Wake (c . 1580-1632), the diplomatist, was a kinsman of the archbishop . He commenced his diplomatic career in Venice, and then he represented his county for sixteen years at Turin; he was knighted in 1619, and after being sent on various special missions by James I. he was British ambassador in Paris from 163o until his death in June 1632 . Among Sir Isaac's writings is Rex platonicus, a description of the entertainment of James I. at Oxford in 1605; this was published in 1607 and has often been reprinted .