Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/650

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626 WILKINSON or the Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geometry" (1648); "Essay toward a Real Character and a Philosophical Lan- guage " (1668) ; and " Principles and Duties of Natural Religion" (1675). He invented and described the perambulator or measuring wheel. WILKINSON. I. A central county of Georgia, bounded N. E. by the Oconee river and drained by its affluents ; area, 430 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 9,383, of whom 4,699 were colored. The sur- face is undulating and diversified by extensive pine forests, and the soil is moderately fertile. Sulphur and chalybeate springs are found. It is intersected by the Georgia Central and the Milledgeville and Eatonton railroads. The chief productions in 1870 were 2,668 bushels of wheat, 182,164 of Indian corn, 22,553 of peas and beans, 82,919 of sweet potatoes, 26,286 Ibs. of butter, 3,747 of wool, and 5,115 bales of cotton. There were 953 horses, 1,948 milch cows, 5,060 other cattle, 1,558 sheep, and 11,- 566 swine. Capital, Irwinton. II. The S. W. county of Mississippi, bordering on Louisiana, bounded W. by the Mississippi river, and N. by the Homochitto ; area, 580 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 12,705, of whom 10,007 were colored. It has an uneven surface, and the soil is extremely fertile. It is intersected by the West Feliciana railroad. The chief productions in 1870 were 158,859 bushels of Indian corn, 25,487 of sweet potatoes, 19,577 Ibs. of butter, and 12,430 bales of cotton. There were 2,220 horses, 1,537 mules and asses, 7,844 cattle, 2,078 sheep, and 6,946 swine. Capital, Woodville. WILKINSON, James, an American soldier, born in Maryland in 1757, died near the city of Mex- ico, Dec. 28, 1825. He studied medicine and began practice, but in 1775 joined a rifle com- pany before Boston, and soon became captain in a New Hampshire regiment. In 1776 he joined Arnold in Canada, and in 1777 served as adjutant general on Gen. Gates's staff. He was brevetted brigadier general in November. In January, 1778, he became secretary of the board of war, but quarrelled with Gates, and resigned. In 1779 he was made clothier gen- eral of the army. In 1791 he served as colo- nel in an expedition against the Wabash In- dians; in March, 1792, became. brigadier gen- eral; commanded the right wing of Wayne's army in the battle of the Maumee, Aug. 20, 1794; and in December, 1796, became gen- eral-in-chief. Ho was governor of Louisiana in 1805-'6, afterward protected the S. W. fron- tier against Spanish incursions, and at New Orleans was employed to defeat the plans of Aaron Burr. On charges of complicity' with Burr and receiving bribes from Spain, he was tried and acquitted in 1811. In 1813 he re- duced Mobile, and was then ordered to the northern frontier, where his operations against Canada were totally unsuccessful, mainly, as it appeared, from lack of concert with Gen. Wade Hampton. He was superseded, and on charges preferred by the secretary of war in February, 1814, he was tried by court martial at Troy in 1815, and honorably acquitted. He published his " Memoirs " in 1816 (3 vols. 8vo), and spent his later years in Mexico. WILKINSON, Jemima, an American fanatic, born in Cumberland, R. I., in 1753, died at Je- rusalem, Yates co., N. Y., July 1, 1819. She was educated as a Quaker. At the age of 20, after a severe fever and an apparent suspension of life, she professed to have been raised from the dead, and pretended to work miracles. She was attractive and shrewd, and obtained many followers and held them in subjection, insist- ing upon the Shaker doctrine of celibacy. She assumed the name of "universal friend," was accompanied by two "witnesses," Sarah Rich- ards and Rachel Miller, and in her religious meetings adopted Shaker forms. In 1786 her followers resolved to found a colony in what is now the town of Torrey, Yates co., N. Y. In 1789, 14,000 acres were purchased, to which the town of Jerusalem was afterward added. At her death the sect was entirely broken up. WILKINSON, Sir John Gardner, an English Egyptologist, born Oct. 5, 1797, died Oct. 29, 1875. He was educated at Harrow and at Ox- ford. During a residence of 12 years in Egypt he made a profound study of its ruins and topography, as also of the languages, man- ners, and customs of the modern inhabitants. He published " Materia Hieroglyphica " (Malta, 1828), "Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt" (London, 1835), and "Man- ners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," his great work (1st series, 8 vols. 8vo, 1887; 2d ed., 1842 ; 2d series, 8 vols., 1841 ; 8d ed. of both series, 5 vols., with 600 illustrations, 1847; new ed., edited by Dr. Birch, 1876). He was knighted in 1840. In 1843 appeared his "Mod- ern Egypt and Thebes " (2 vols. 8vo ; 2d ed., 1844). In 1847, and again in 1857, new edi- tions of this work were published in a con- densed and corrected form under the title of "A Hand Book for Travellers in Modern Egypt." In 1848 he published "Dalmatia and Monte- negro" (2 vols. 8vo), to which succeeded the "Architecture of Ancient Egypt," &c. (8vo, 1850), accompanied by a large volume of plates ; " Fragments of the Hieratic Papyrus at Turin " (1851), with a folio volume of plates; and an abridgment of his large work entitled "A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians" (2 vols. 12mo, 1854). In 1855-'6 he revisited Egypt, and on his return to England published " The Egyptians under the Pharaohs," which forms a supplement to the " Popular Account" (8vo, 1857). In 1858 he published a treatise on " Color, and the General Diffusion of Taste among all Classes." In 1874 he presented his collection of coins to Harrow school ; he had previously given it hia Egyptian, Greek, and other antiquities. He contributed many of the notes to Rawlinson's version of Herodotus, and published papers in the " Transactions " of the geographical and archaeological societies of Great Britain. His life has been published by his widow (London, 1876).