He was educated at Westminster School and Clare Hall, Cambridge,[1] 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 (d. 1762), president of Barnard's Inn, whose name he assumed.
From 1771 to 1779 he was chaplain to Thomas Robinson, 2nd Baron Grantham, ambassador to the Court at Madrid, during which time he exchanged Whitby for Topcliffe, and appointed himself rector of Cherry Burton, both in Yorkshire.
During his residence in Spain Waddilove became friends with Abbe Bayer, tutor to the Spanish court, and had access to the library of the Escorial, where he collated the manuscript of Strabo for Thomas Falconer's edition (Clarendon Press, 2 vols.
In 1775, while in Spain, he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, for which he wrote several papers, among them 'An Historical and Descriptive Account of Ripon Minster' (Archæologia, vols.
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.
Waddilove was an active magistrate and zealous in his ecclesiastical duties; in one instance he was recorded as having destroyed a stage to prevent an illegal boxing match in the village of Grewelthorpe near Ripon.