# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Waddilove, Robert Darley

​WADDILOVE, ROBERT DARLEY (1736–1828), dean of Ripon, born in November 1736, was son of Abel Darley of Boroughbridge. The Darleys, originally a Derbyshire family, had lived for four generations at Ripley in Yorkshire, but the dean's father migrated to Scoreby in East Riding. He was educated at Westminster and Clare Hall, Cambridge, of which society he became a scholar, but was unable to take a fellowship, having inherited landed property at Boroughbridge from his uncle, Robert Waddilove, president of Bernard's Inn, whose name he assumed. He graduated B.A. in 1759, and M.A. in 1762. He was curate of Wotton in Surrey, and in 1767 rector of Whitby. From 1771 to 1779 he was chaplain to the embassy of Lord Grantham at Madrid, during which time he exchanged Whitby for Topcliffe, and appointed himself rector of Cherry Burton, both in Yorkshire. In 1780 he became prebendary of Ripon, 1782 prebendary of York, and in 1786 archdeacon of the East Riding. He was chaplain to Archbishops Robert Hay Drummond [q. v.] and William Markham [q. v.], and in 1791 became dean of Ripon. He received the degree of LL.D. from Archbishop John Moore (1730-1805) [q. v.] He held the deanery of Ripon with the archdeaconry till his death. During his residence in Spain Waddilove had access to the library of the Escurial, where he collated the manuscript of Strabo for Thomas Falconer's edition (Clarendon Press, 2 vols. fol. 1807), and obtained much useful information for Robertson's 'History ​of America,' which the historian gratefully acknowledges in the preface. He also wrote remarks on the pictures in the king of Spain's collection which had formerly belonged to Charles I of England, translated Mengs's 'Essay of Painting' (2 vols. London, 1796), and received from Don Gabriel, infant of Spain, a copy of the translation of Sallust made by the prince. He had while in Spain been elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1775, for which he wrote several papers, among them 'An Historical and Descriptive Account of Ripon Minster' (Archæologia, vols. xvi. and xvii.) At his death he left to the library of York Minster a magnificent copy of Falconer's 'Strabo,' and of the rare work 'Bibliotheca Arábica del Escurial.' The dean was an active magistrate and zealous in his ecclesiastical duties. He was president of the Society for the Relief of the North Riding Clergy, and earnestly promoted its interests. His private charities were extensive, and he gave on several occasions large sums to increase the endowments of parishes in his own patronage or that of the chapter. Waddilove died at the deanery, Ripon, on 18 Aug. 1828. He married, in 1781, Anne Hope, daughter of Sir Ludovick Grant of Grant, leaving a large family. His son, William James Darley Waddilove, chaplain to the Duke of Roxburghe, married Elizabeth Anne, the sister of the statesman, Sir James Robert George Graham [q. v.] of Netherby, and was the father of Admiral Charles Ludovic Waddilove of Beacon Grange, Hexham. One of the dean's daughters, Georgiana Maria, married Charles Christopher Oxley, of Minster House, Ripon.
[Memorials of Ripon (Surtees Soc.), ii. 275; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, viii. 636, 650; Documents in Bodleian Library, &c.; Gent. Mag. 1829, i. 90; Burke's Landed Gentry; Notes and Queries, 9th ser. iv. 5.]
W. H. F.