Early Life
Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood (1580–1643), BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born. He was sent to New College School in 1641, and at the age of twelve was removed to the free Lord Williams's School at Thame, where his studies were interrupted by Civil War skirmishes. He was then placed under the tuition of his brother Edward (1627–1655), of Trinity College, and, as he tells us, 'while he continued in this condition his mother would alwaies be soliciting him to be an apprentice which he could never endure to heare of.' He was entered at Merton College in 1647, and made postmaster.
In 1652 he took up ploughing and bell-ringing. 'Having had from his most tender years an extraordinary ravishing delight in music,' he began to teach himself the violin and took his BA examinations. He engaged a music-master and obtained permission to use the Bodleian, "which he took to be the happiness of his life." He received the MA degree in 1655, and in the following year published a volume of sermons by his late brother Edward.
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