Wilkins, JOHN

Wilkins, JOHN, Bishop of Chester from 1668 till his death, was born near Daventry in Northamptonshire in 1614, son of an Oxford goldsmith. At thirteen he was admitted at New Inn Hall, whence he shortly removed to Magdalen Hall, graduating B.A. in 1631. As chaplain successively to William, Lord Say, George, Lord Berkeley, and Charles, Count-palatine of the Rhine, he found time for studies in mathematics and mechanical philosophy, and aided in those meetings in London out of which grew the Royal Society. He sided with the parliament, and was appointed Warden of Wadham College. In 1656 he married Robina, widow of Peter French, and sister of Oliver Cromwell, and in 1659 was appointed by Richard Cromwell Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Possessed at the Restoration, he soon recovered court favour and became preacher at Gray's Inn, rector of St Lawrence Jewry, Dean of Ripon, and Bishop of Chester. He died November 19, 1672. As an ecclesiastic he was tolerant and moderate, and indeed looked little better than a trimmer to the zealots, and even the eulogy of that pedantic old Tory, Anthony Wood, is coloured with a characteristic touch of malice—'there was nothing deficient in him but a constant mind and settled principles.' His name now survives only in his curious treatises: Discovery of a New World (1638), which gravely discusses the possibility of communication by a flying-machine with the moon and its supposed inhabitants; Discourse concerning a New Planet (1640), an argument that our earth is one of the planets; Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger, showing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his thoughts to a friend at any distance; Mathematical Magic (1648); Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (1668), founded on Dalgarno's treatise. His theological writings are forgotten.