WORDSWORTH, Christopher, the youngest brother of the poet, was born at Cockermouth in 1774. After a preliminary education at the grammar school of Hawkstead, he removed to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1792, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1796, was elected a fellow in 1798, and graduated as master of arts in 1799. In 1802 he printed Six Letters to Granville Sharpe, on his Remarks on the Uses of the Article Definitive in the Greek Testament, which were highly admired by such scholars as Horsley and Middleton, and procured him the patronage of Manners Sutton, then archbishop of Canterbury, who appointed him his domestic chaplain. This patronage, of course, secured him ecclesiastical preferment; and among other livings which were conferred on him was that of dean of Bocking, the same which Gauden, the presumed real author of the Icon Basilike, had held. In 1809 he issued his Ecclesiastical Biography, in six volumes, which, on its subsequent re-issue, were augmented by four more. This work was rewarded with the title of B.D., which was conferred on him by royal mandate, and was speedily followed by valuable church preferment. In 1814 he was made rector of St Mary's, Lambeth; and in 1816 he became chaplain of the House of Commons; and in 1820 was elected master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Perhaps his residence at Bocking had inspired him with a more than usual interest in the vexed question of the Icon Basilike, at all events he wrote two volumes on the subject, the one entitled, Who wrote Icon Basilike considered and answered; the other, King Charles the First the Author of Icon Basilike proved in reply to the objections of Lingard, the Edinburgh Review, Mr Hallam, &c. The question is so usually discussed under the influence of political bias, that we shall be excused pronouncing an opinion on the success of his work in proving Charles to be the author of the Icon. He has, however, accumulated a mass of evidence in his favour which must be disproved before it can again be asserted that Gauden was the real author. In 1837 he prepared his Christian Institutes, intended for students for holy orders; and in 1841 resigned his mastership of Trinity, an office in which he has been worthily succeeded by Dr Whewell. After his resignation he retired to his living at Boxted, where he died in 1846.