of the Early Annals of the English in Bengal, which furnish much hitherto unknown information on the beginnings of the English connection with India : and edited the Inscriptions on Tombs and Monuments in Bengal : he was a zealous and painstaking student of Indian historical records : and laboured at clearing up all the details of the tragedy of the Black Hole of Calcutta, its site, the survivors, etc. : he died in England, July 24, 1904.
WILSON, RIGHT REV. DANIEL (1778–1858)
Son of Stephen Wilson, a rich silk manufacturer : born July 2, 1778 : educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford : D.D., 1832 : Tutor of his College, 1804–11 : Assistant and Incumbent of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, London, 1809–23 : Vicar of Islington, 1824–32 : appointed Bishop of Calcutta and Metropolitan of India, 1832 : held the see till his death on Jan. 2, 1858 : made long visitation tours through India and Ceylon, and to Burma, the Straits, Singapur and Malacca : he built St. Paul's Cathedral at Calcutta between Oct. 8, 1839, and Oct. 8, 1847 : he insisted on the absolute abandonment of the caste system among native Christains in S. India : he infused energy into all Church matters, and was described as the Champion of Evangelicalism, strongly opposed to Tractarianism. Lord Dalhousie spoke of him to Lord Canning as "the best man of business he had to do with in India" : his liberality was princely : traditions of his style of preaching and eccentricities survive to this day : he was buried in the Cathedral at Cal-cutta : volumes of his sermons and writings were published. His life was written by his son-in-law, the Rev. Josiah Bateman, 1860.
WILSON, HORACE HAYMAN (1786–1860)
Born Sep. 26, 1786 : educated in Soho Square, London, and at St. Thomas's Hospital : arrived in Calcutta in 1808, in the medical service of the E. I. Co. : was at once attached to the Mint at Calcutta, for his knowledge of chemistry and assay : was Secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1811–33, with short intervals. He studied Sanskrit steadily and translated the Meghaduta of Kalidasa in 1813. In 1816 he was appointed Assay master of the Calcutta mint, and held the appointment until he left India in 1832. He published the Theatre of the Hindus and Sanskrit-English dictionary (two editions), besides contributing to Asiatic Researches, the Journals of the Asiatic, Medical, and Physical Societies, and other Oriental Literature. He wrote an Historical Account of the Burmese War : catalogued Col. Colin Mackenzie's MSS. : was Secretary to the Committee of Public Instruction, introducing the study of European Science and English Literature into native education : and was visitor to the Sanskrit College. He became Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1833, Hon. M.A. at Exeter College : Librarian of the India House in 1836, Examiner at Haileybury, and Director of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1837 till his death : F.R.S., 1834. He continued his labours on Indian subjects, publishing the Vishnu Purana; Lectures on the Religious and Philosophical Systems of the Hindus, 1840; a Sanskrit grammar; the Ariana Antigua; a new edition of Mill's History of British India; a translation of the Rig-Veda; a Glossary of Indian Terms, and an edition of Macnaghten's Hindu Law : the greatest Sanskrit scholar of his time, conbining a variety of attainments as general linguist, historian, chemist, accountant, numismatist, actor and musician : died May 8, 1860.
WILSON, JAMES (1760–1814)
Captain : son of a Captain in the mercantile navy : in the American war, at Bunker's Hill and Long Island : mate on an East Indiaman, joined the local Indian mercantile, or transport, service : to convey supplies to Sir Eyre Coote and Admiral Hughes in Madras, he ran the blockade established by Admiral Suffrein : was captured, and sold with others as prisoners to Hyder Ali : made a bold attempt to escape, was recaptured, and taken to Seringapatam : imprisoned in irons for twenty-three months : on release, he shipped to Java and nearly died at Batavia : made a fortune by trading, and retired. In 1796 he took strong religious views, bought a ship and on behalf of the London Missionary Society conducted a voyage of thirty Missionaries to the Islands of the S. Pacific Ocean : returned in 1798, and, for sixteen years.
