and a famous Irish nationalist is said to have embraced the old clergyman on learning that he was the author of ‘The Minstrel's Walk.’ He died at Attanagh in November 1868.
Wills was an unusually brilliant conversationist, and some of his more ambitious poems show much of the dramatic power which descended to his son, William Gorman Wills [q. v.]
[Webb's Compendium; Dublin University Magazine; W. G. Wills, Dramatist and Painter, by Freeman Wills; Irish Quarterly Review, March 1852; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Todd's Graduates of Dublin University; Burke's Landed Gentry; Brooke's Recollections of the Irish Church, 2nd ser.]
WILLS, JOHN (1741–1806), benefactor of Wadham College, Oxford, the only son of John Wills of Seaborough, Somerset, was born at Seaborough in 1741. He matriculated from Hertford College, Oxford, on 18 March 1758, aged 17, graduated B.A. in 1761, becoming a fellow of the society in 1765. In the same year he proceeded M.A. He was preferred to the college rectory of Tyd St. Mary in 1778, and in 1779 was presented to the rectory of Seaborough by Adam Martin; five years later he rebuilt the parsonage of his native village. Wills was elected fifteenth warden of Wadham College on 7 July 1783, in succession to Dr. James Gerard. He took the degree of D.D. in the same year, and the office of vice-chancellor devolved upon him in 1792. After an uneventful headship he died at Wadham on 16 June 1806, aged 65.
In Wills Wadham found its greatest benefactor since its foundation. He left 400l. a year to augment the warden's stipend, at the same time bequeathing his books and furniture to his successor, Dr. William Tournay. He left 1,000l. to improve the warden's lodgings; two exhibitions of 100l. each annually to two fellows of the college, students of law and physic; two scholarships of 20l. each for the same faculties; stipends of thirty guineas yearly for a divinity lecturer and preacher, and annuities of 75l. and 50l. to superannuated fellows, besides a reading prize and minor benefactions. He also left an estate at Tyd St. Giles, worth about 150l. per annum, to the vice-chancellor for the time being, ‘in aid of the great burthens of his office;’ 100l. per annum to the senior Bodleian librarian; 100l. per annum to the theatre, and 100l. per annum to the Oxford Infirmary. After some private bequests he made the residue of his estate over to the college for the purchase of livings. Owing to Wills's liberality the Wadham gardens reached their present extent, the parterres and clipped yews and statuettes of Dr. Wilkins's time, as described by John Evelyn, giving place to the ‘romantic’ garden designed by Shipley. The portrait of Wills by Hoppner, in the hall at Wadham, was painted in 1793.
[Jackson's Wadham College, pp. 121, 147, 184, 187, 215; Gent. Mag. 1806, i. 589–90; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886.]
WILLS, RICHARD (fl. 1558–1573), author. [See Willes.]
WILLS, THOMAS (1740–1802), evangelical preacher, born at Truro, Cornwall, on 26 July 1740, was the son of Thomas Wills of St. Issey (a descendant of Jonathan Wills, ejected minister in 1662 from Lanteglos-juxta-Camelford), who married Mary Spry. The mother and twin-sister, both of whom were buried in Truro church, died at his birth. The father died a year or two later, and was also buried there. The two surviving sons were adopted by the eldest aunt, Lucy Spry of Truro, who died in 1755, leaving most of her fortune to Thomas. The elder boy, John Wills (d. 11 Oct. 1764), became a lieutenant in the navy under his relative, Admiral Spry. The younger son, after his aunt's death, was put under the care of her brother-in-law, Thomas Michell of Croft West, near Truro, and placed at Truro grammar school, where he attended the ministry of Samuel Walker [q. v.]
Wills matriculated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, on 28 March 1757, and graduated B.A. 11 Dec. 1760. While at the university he became friendly with Thomas Haweis [q. v.], a brother Cornishman and pupil at Truro school, and was numbered among his religious associates. He was ordained deacon by the bishop of Oxford in 1762, and priest by the bishop of Exeter on Trinity Sunday 1764. In 1764 he was appointed to the curacy of Perranzabuloe and St. Agnes, two parishes on the north coast of Cornwall, of which James Walker, a brother of Samuel Walker, was vicar. His connection with Perranzabuloe ceased in 1765, but he remained at St. Agnes until January 1778.
In the autumn of 1772 Wills made the acquaintance of the Countess of Huntingdon at Bath and frequently preached in her chapel. In the autumn of 1774 he was again in that city, and on 6 Oct. 1774 he married Selina Margaretta, third daughter of the Rev. Granville Wheler of Otterden Place, near Faversham, Kent, by his wife, Lady Catherine Maria Hastings. Lady Huntingdon, his wife's aunt, visited them at St. Agnes in the autumn of 1775, and established her chapels in Cornwall. Wills was appointed
