great pain; and although his spirits were frequently dejected, his faculties were never overthrown. He expired placidly in his house, Gloucester Place, at midnight, on 2nd April, 1854. The works of Professor Wilson, collected principally from Blackwood's Magazine, and edited by his son-in-law, Professor Ferrier, have been published in twelve volumes by the Messrs. Blackwood. They contain "Noctes Ambrosianæ," 4 vols.; "Essays, Critical and Imaginative," 4 vols.; "Recreations of Christopher North," 2 vols.; "Tales," 1 vol.; "Poems," 1 vol. His life in two volumes, entitled Christopher North, a memoir of John Wilson, has been written by his daughter, Mrs. Gordon.—J. F. F.
WILSON, John Hewetson, an English botanist, was born about 1810, and died on 12th November, 1850. He was educated at Wadham college, Oxford, and took his degree of B.A. He published in 1849 a carefully executed translation of Adrien de Jussieu's Elements of Botany.—J. H. B.
WILSON, Richard, the son of a Welsh clergyman, was born at Pinegas in Montgomeryshire in 1713. His countryman Sir George Wynne brought him to London when still a boy, and placed him with an obscure portrait painter of the name of Wright. Wilson commenced as a portrait painter, and though he had some distinguished sitters, his works of this class appear to have had very little merit. He visited Italy in 1749, and being advised there both by Zuccherelli and Joseph Vernet to give up portraits for landscape painting, he followed their advice, and returned home an accomplished and classical painter of landscape scenery. He returned to England in 1755, and in 1760 attracted general attention by his large picture of "The Destruction of Niobe's Children;" but he never became a popular painter. Patrons were few in those days, and Wilson, like many others, had to depend almost entirely on the patronage of the dealers, whose prices amounted to the ordinary pay of a respectable mechanic. The few knew his worth, and some of Wilson's subjects were so well received that he repeated them several times, finding it much more easy to sell these repetitions than new unpraised subjects. There are three "Niobes;" one which was in possession of Sir George Beaumont is now in the National gallery, where there are also several other excellent specimens of this master. He was one of the original thirty-six members of the Royal Academy, and in 1776 succeeded Hayman as librarian. This was a great godsend to him, as it brought him an annual income of £60, enough to keep him. He had hitherto lived in comparative indigence, and he was now already old—sixty-three —and a few years later the death of a brother brought him comparative affluence. Wilson then gave up his profession, which had given him a life of drudgery, and in 1780 retired to his own country, where he settled in the village of Llanverris or Llanferras in Denbighshire, and he died there in 1782. In 1814 about seventy of his pictures were exhibited together in the British institution, creating a display the grandeur of which astonished the newspaper critics of the day. This is more than twice the number—thirty-one—that he had exhibited altogether at the Royal Academy during the years he was an active member, from 1769 to 1780 inclusive; but of these thirty-one all seem to have been disposed of, except four, previous to the exhibition, which, coupled with his poor circumstances, shows the small prices he must have been in the habit of taking. He had only twenty-five guineas for his large picture of "Mæcenas' Villa," now in the National gallery. Wilson appeared rather before his time. He was, however, a conventional painter; his touch is oily, and his colouring naturally cold, especially in his English or Welsh views; but many of his Italian pictures are warmly and richly coloured, and these are his finest works. Many of his best works have been admirably engraved by Woollett; and these prints exhibit Wilson as a complete master of light and shade, and aerial effects—qualities not so prominent in the pictures themselves, owing to their heavy colouring. His figures were often painted by Mortimer and Hayman.—R. N. W.
WILSON, Sir Robert Thomas, General, was the son of Mr. Benjamin Wilson, the painter, and was born in 1777. Educated at Westminster and Winchester, he is said to have entered a solicitor's office; but introduced by a military friend to the notice of the duke of York, he joined the British army in Flanders at the close of 1793. He had served his country with distinction in Europe, Africa, and America, when in 1812 he was appointed British commissioner at the head-quarters of the allied armies. In 1813 he had attained the rank of major-general; and when the allied armies entered France, he was sent as British commissioner to the Austrian army in Italy. After the peace he visited Paris, where in January, 1816, with two other English gentlemen, he effected the escape of Lavalette; and tried by a Paris tribunal for the offence in the March of that year, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. The duke of York formally condemned his conduct; and his expressed disapproval of the policy of the government in the matter of Queen Caroline, led to his dismissal from the army in September, 1821. A public subscription, however, was raised to indemnify him; and after a few years he was reinstated, being made a lieutenant-general in 1825. From 1818 to 1831 he sat in the house of commons as liberal member for Southwark, and from 1842 to 1849 he was governor of Gibraltar. He died in London in May, 1849. Sir Robert was a writer on military subjects. The most interesting of his productions, however, are two recently edited by his nephew—his "Narrative of Events during the Invasion of Russia," London, 1860; and his "Private Diary during mission and employment with the European armies in the campaigns of 1812, 1813, 1814, from the invasion of Russia to the capture of Paris," 1861—both of them valuable works.—F. E.
WILSON, Sir Thomas, a prominent divine and statesman in the reign of Elizabeth, was the son of Thomas Wilson of Stroby, Lancashire. He was educated at Eton and at Cambridge, and afterwards became tutor to the duke of Suffolk's two sons. He lived on the continent during the reign of Mary, and narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Romish inquisition for having published previously "The Rule of Reason, containing the Art of Logic," and "The Art of Rhetoric." Having returned to England, he became secretary to Queen Elizabeth; master of St. Katherine's hospital, near the Tower; and was sent on an embassy to Holland. He afterwards rose to be a secretary of state and dean of Durham. He died in 1581. Besides the above-named works, which may justly be reckoned as the first of the kind ever written in the English language, Wilson was the author of a "Discourse upon Usury," 1572; and a translation of three orations of Demosthenes.—F.
WILSON, Thomas, a most excellent and celebrated prelate, was born at Burton in Cheshire in 1663. He was educated at Trinity college, Dublin. After taking orders, he left Ireland on account of its unsettled state, and in 1685 became curate of New church, Winwick, Lancashire; his uncle. Dr. Richard Sherlock, being rector. In 1692 he became chaplain to the earl of Derby, and went abroad for three years with the earl's eldest son, Lord Strange, to whom he was preceptor. In 1697 the earl, as sovereign in the Isle of Man, gave him the bishopric of Sodor and Man as a reward for his faithful services to his pupil, who had recently died. On his consecration he gave himself heartily to the work of his diocese, and in 1699 published in Manx a small tract on the "Principles and Duties of Christianity," the first book printed in that dialect. In 1707 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by both the English universities— Archbishop Tenison having created him doctor of laws prior to his consecration. At a later period of his life he was brought into trouble by a dispute with the governor of the island on a matter of church discipline. The bishop was summarily tried and fined, and his two vicars-general and himself were imprisoned in Castle Rushen, June 29, 1722. The people rose at once in behalf of their bishop, and were with difficulty restrained from liberating him by violence. Dr. Wilson's appeal against the petty tyrant was at length sustained, the proceedings were condemned, and the meek bishop refused to prosecute the governor for damages. The king soon after offered him the see of Exeter, but he would not accept it. On his next visit to England he was gladly received at court, and by many persons high in station. After a long life of quiet and earnest usefulness, he died, March 7, 1755, in his ninety-second year, after a very brief illness. His works were published by his son in two vols., 4to, and a new edition has a place in the Anglo-catholic library. Bishop Wilson was an honour to his order. He was exemplary in the discharge of all his episcopal functions. He set up libraries in all the parishes of his diocese, established schools, promoted agriculture in a variety of ways, and began a translation of the New Testament into the Manx language. He also composed "Notes on Scripture." Lord King said that "if the ancient discipline of the church were lost, it might be found in all its purity in the Isle of Man." His annual income at one period was scarcely more than £300.—J. E.
WILSON, William, one of the four fathers or founders of
