Wilson, THOMAS

Wilson, THOMAS, English divine and saint, was born at Burton in Cheshire, September 20, 1663, made his studies at Trinity College, Dublin, and served as curate of Newchurch Kenyon from 1686 till 1692, when he became chaplain to the Earl of Derby, who appointed him Bishop of Sodor and Man in November 1697. For fifty-eight years he governed his diocese with constant care, and entered into his rest on March 7, 1755. His Principles and Duties of Christianity (1707), commonly called the Manx Catechism—the first book printed in the native tongue—and his Essay towards an Instruction for the Indians, written for Ogletorpe's Georgia plantation scheme, and submitted to Isaac Watts (published only in 1740), were combined to form The Knowledge and Practice of Christianity made easy to the Meanest Capacities (1755). But his name best survives in his admirable Short and Plain Instructions for the Better Understanding of the Lord's Supper (1736), and Sacra privata, Private Meditations, Devotions, and Prayers (1800). Other books are Parochialia, or Instructions for the Clergy (1788), and Maxims of Piety and Christianity (1789). He instituted a Manx translation of the Bible, which was completed 1772-75. The first collection of Bishop Wilson's works was made by the Rev. C. Cruttwell (Bath, 1781); the best is that by Kelble in the 'Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology' (Oxford, 7 vols. 1847-52), with a prolix Life, itself reprinted (2 vols. 1863).