WILKINS, JOHN, an eminent philosopher and divine, the son of Walter Wilkins, a goldsmith of Oxford, was born in 1614, at Fawsley, near Daventry in Northamptonshire, in the house of his maternal grandfather, John Dod, a non-conformist. After being trained in a private school at Oxford, he was entered of New Inn Hall in 1627, but was not long afterwards removed to Magdalen Hall, where he took his degrees in arts. On receiving holy orders, he became chaplain to Lord Say, and afterwards to Charles Count Palatine of the Rhine. To the favour of this prince his knowledge of mathematics was a strong recommendation. At the age of twenty-four he published "The Discovery of a New World; or, a Discourse tending to prove that 'tis probable there may be another habitable World in the Moon: with a Discourse concerning the Possibility of a Passage thither." Lond. 1638, 8vo. This was followed by "A Discourse concerning a New Planet; tending to prove that it is probable our Earth is one of the Planets." Lond. 1640, 8vo. Both these works appeared without his name. He next produced "Mercury; or, the secret and swift Messenger; shewing how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his thoughts to a friend at any distance." Lond. 1641, 8vo. Another of his works bears the title of "Mathematical Magic; or, the Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geometry." Lond. 1648, 8vo. These four tracts were long afterwards reprinted in a collection of his Mathematical and Philosophical Works. Lond. 1708, 8vo. Lond. 1802, 2 vols. 8vo. The earliest of his theological works was his "Ecclesiastes; or, a Discourse of the Gift of Preaching, as it falls under the Rules of Art." Lond. 1646, 8vo. The ninth edition was printed in 1718. This publication was succeeded in 1649 by "A Discourse concerning the Beauty of Providence, in all the rugged passages of it;" and in 1653 by "A Discourse concerning the Gift of Prayer."
On the commencement of the civil wars he adhered to the parliament, and took the solemn league and covenant. The committee for reforming the university appointed him warden of Wadham College. On the 12th of April 1648 he was created B. D., and was next day admitted to the office, for which his learning, as well as his talents and temper, eminently qualified him. Next year he was created D. D., and about the same period married Robina, the sister of Oliver Cromwell, and the widow of Dr French, canon of Christ Church. The protector granted him a dispensation for retaining the wardenship, notwithstanding his marriage. In 1659 Richard Cromwell appointed him master of Trinity College, Cambridge, but he was ejected in the course of the following year. The Restoration did not however deprive Dr Wilkins of all hope of preferment. He soon afterwards became preacher at Gray's Inn, and rector of St Lawrence-Jewry. His next promotion was to the deanery of Ripon. It was about this period that he published the most remarkable of his works, "An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language." Lond. 1668, fol. Of this essay a Latin version was completed by Ray, but was never published. During the same year, 1668, he was advanced to the bishopric of Chester; and his consecration sermon was preached by Dr Tillotson, who had married his step-daughter, Elizabeth French. The high preferment which he so well merited he did not long enjoy. Wilkins was the fourth bishop appointed to this see since the year 1600. His fatal disease was a suppression of urine, which was mistaken for the stone. He died at Dr Tillotson's house in Chancery-lane, London, on the 19th of November 1672, having only attained the age of fifty-eight. His funeral
sermon was preached by Dr Lloyd, afterwards bishop of Worcester, who was himself a man of distinguished learning. His papers were left to the disposal of Tillotson, who prepared for the press his treatise "Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion, two books." Lond. 1675, 8vo. This work was very favourably received, and it reached a fifth edition in 1704. The same editor afterwards published a volume containing fifteen of the bishop's Sermons. Lond. 1688, 8vo. In the preface he vindicated the character of this excellent prelate from some of the malignant aspersions to which it had been exposed. Wilkins was a man of a liberal and generous mind, and was as much distinguished by a humane disposition as by his intellectual endowments. But he was the brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell, and had subscribed the covenant; and after the church again became triumphant, he was disposed to treat dissenters with a degree of Christian moderation and charity which the indomitable bigotry of too many churchmen could not but regard as truly scandalous. If the other prelates of that age had been animated with the same spirit, the church of England would not so speedily have been felt as a grievous scourge by a great proportion of its most pious and exemplary ministers. Richard Baxter would not have been subjected to persecution merely for preaching the gospel with a degree of zeal and fervour scarcely equalled in that security, establishment from which he had found himself compelled to separate.