Samuel Richardson's master during his apprenticeship from 1706-1713, and the father of Richardson's first wife, Martha. Wilde's son Allington remained Richardson's lifelong friend.

A character and the eponymous narrator of "The Wife of Bath's Tale." in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,

Geschichte des Agathon (1776-7, expanded in 1773 and 1794) is Wieland's fictionalized autobiography. Wieland's novel Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus (1791) examines fanaticism over scientific and philosophical developments.

William Whitehead was Poet Laureate of England from 1757 until his death. A dramatist, one of his most popular plays was the tragedy The Roman Father (1750).

A poet and satirist, Whitehead authored humorous poetry and commented on political issues of his time. His work State Dunces (1733) was an imitaion of Alexander Pope's The Dunciad (1728).

An English poet and novelist, Charles Whitehead published The Solitary in 1831. Whitehead additionally published novels such as Richard Savage in 1842 and left a drama entitled The Spanish Marriage unfinished at his death in 1862.

English dramatist and author whose The Right, Excellent and Famous Historye of Promos and Cassandra (1578) inspired Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Father to Philip, Duke of Wharton. After a rather colorful youth, Thomas Wharton rose to political influence in the Protestant regime installed through the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He became lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1688 and appointed Joseph Addison as his secretary.

Politically controversial and personally profligate politician who flaunted his Jacobite sympathies. He published the True Briton from 1723 to 1724 with Samuel Richardson as printer. Some believe that Wharton served as Richardson's model for the character Lovelace in Clarissa.

English clergyman, schoolmaster, antiquary, and editor. Whalley edited the work of such authors as Ben Jonson and John Bridges. His original works include An Essay on the Manner of Writing History, An Enquiry into the Learning of Shakespeare, and Vindication of the Evidences and Authenticity of the Gospels from the Objections of the late Lord Bolingbroke.