Early Life
Wadsworth Busk was born in on the 3
rd of January 1729/30, the youngest son of
Jacob Hansson Busck1 and
Rachel Wadsworth. His baptism (at
Call Lane Chapel in Leeds) is recorded as non-conformist, with the denomination noted as "Arian Independent".
Career
Wadsworth entered Middle Temple in June 1774, but wasn't called to the Bar until 1755. He practiced as an advocate until his appointment as the Manx Attorney General in 1774. It would appear that financial pressures induced him to accept the post - he writes in March 1775
2:
"..tho' fortune has banished, tho' she has imprisoned me too - she has not yet made it my duty to surrender all the comforts of life ... and who can say that the ease and independence which she has denied me, in the place where I most wished her shall not be found in the path that she herself has led to"
In his later years of service in the Isle of Man, his health was not good and Busk went into 'retirement' at Newtown - as reported by David Roberston; he left the Island shortly after the appointment of 4th Duke of Atholl as Governor - an appointee he could not have been happy with. He retired to Beaconsfield where his health appeared to improve and for nearly a decade played a leading part in the running of Middle Temple before spending his last 8 years in near total seclusion at Dacre Lodge, East Barnet.
Family Life
Wadsworth married
Alice Parish, the daughter and heiress of a West India merchant (
Edward Clark Parish), in
Walthamstow in January 1756. They had five sons:
- Edward, born 1765 who married Sarah Thomasine Teshmaker
- Jacob Hans, born 1767 who married Martha Dawson
- Robert, born 1768, who became a trader and merchant in St Petersburg, Russia and who married Jane Westly there
- William, born c. 1769
- Hans, born 1772 and who became a poet and devoted his life to classical studies; he maried Maria Green and had seven children
Alice Parish died in 1776 and Wadsworth later re-married, to Sarah Birch
3, but had no further children.
Death
Wadsworth died on the 15
th of December 1811 and was buried at the
Temple Church in the City of London on the 24
th of December that same year.
The following obituary is taken from page 12 of
The National Register (London), 22
nd December 1811:
On Sunday, the 15th instant, at Dacre Lodge, near East Barnet, Herts, died, at the advanced age of 82 years, Sir Wadsworth Busk, Knt. a Bencher of the Society of the Middle Temple, and for many years his Majesty's Attorney-General of the Isle of Man, who, in the faithful, zealous and conscientious discharge of his official duties, acquired the esteem and veneration of the inhabitants of that island.
Since his retiring from that station, though sinking gradually under the infirmities of age, his days have been passed in the exercise of every social duty, of every moral obligation, of every Christian charity.
In him were united, sound judgment, brilliant wit, refined taste, and pure benevolence. He possessed a dignified deportment, added to the most easy, unaffected, simplicity of manners, and a philosophical independence of mind, joined to the most pious resignation, and the most devout humility; nor did the heart of any man ever glow with more fervent wishes for the diffusion of useful knowledge, and civil and religious liberty through the world.
In conversation, his discourse was always instructive animating, and impressive; in writing, his language was peculiarly nervous, perspicuous, and elegant; his acquirements were solid, classical, and extensive; and his knowledge of the human mind deep, penetrating, and acute.
In the course of his long and exemplary life, his acquaintance was courted by some of the worthiest and most distinguished characters of the age, who have most of them preceded him to the silent tomb, and whose names could add no lustre to his mild and unassuming excellences. Yet it ought not to be omitted, that the great and good Dr Price, whose financial calculations have done more benefit to his country than has ever been properly acknowledged, and whose extraordinary talents and universal philanthropy, were an honour to human nature, was his most intimate friend.
This feeble testimony to the merits of the deceased, is not required to display the exalted worth of one whose innate modesty shrunk as much from every thing like ostentation, as his amiable disposition aspired to cultivate the affection, and succeeded in attracting the praise of the wise and good. But it is one of their most sincere supporters, one of their most shining lights, and brightest ornaments, to pass to the grave without his ashes being bedewed by the tear of humanity, sensibility, and virtue:-
----Mollissima corda
Humano generi dare se natura fatetur
Qua lacrimas dedit: haec nostri pare optima sensus,
Piorare ergo jubet casum Ingentis amici.
-----Quis enim bonus-----
Ulla aliena sibi credat mala? Separat hoc nos
A grege brutorum
Footnotes
[1] Jacob was a wool merchant who immigrated from Gothenburg in Sweden and anglicized the surname
[2] See www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/people/law/wbusk.htm
[3] The Memorial Inscriptions at St Swithins Church in Bath have an entry for Sarah
Abt 1730 - 1811 (~ 81 years)
[1] 
