John Wilkins


John Wilkins

Bishop of Chester
DioceseDiocese of Chester
In office1668–1672 (death)
PredecessorGeorge Hall
SuccessorJohn Pearson
Other post(s)Dean of Ripon (1663–1672)
Orders
Consecration15 November 1668
by Gilbert Sheldon
Personal details
Born(1614-02-14)14 February 1614[1]
Died19 November 1672(1672-11-19) (aged 58)
Chancery Lane, London[2]
BuriedSt Lawrence Jewry, London[2]
NationalityEnglish
DenominationAnglican
SpouseRobina Cromwell (m.1656)[2]
ProfessionClergyman, natural philosopher, author, administrator
Alma materNew Inn Hall, Oxford
Magdalen Hall, Oxford[2]
Arms: Argent on a pale engrailed cotised plain Sable three martlets Or.[3]

John Wilkins FRS (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society.[4] He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.

Wilkins is one of the few persons to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He was a polymath, although not one of the most important scientific innovators of the period. His personal qualities were brought out, and obvious to his contemporaries, in reducing political tension in Interregnum Oxford, in founding the Royal Society on non-partisan lines, and in efforts to reach out to Protestant Nonconformists. He was one of the founders of the new natural theology compatible with the science of the time.[5] He is particularly known for An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (1668) in which, amongst other things, he proposed a universal language and an integrated system of measurement, similar to the metric system.

Wilkins lived in a period of great political and religious controversy, yet managed to remain on working terms with men of all political stripes; he was key in setting the Church of England on the path toward comprehension for as many sects as possible, "and toleration for the rest". Gilbert Burnet called him "the wisest clergyman I ever knew. He was a lover of mankind, and had a delight in doing good."[6] His stepdaughter married John Tillotson, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1691.

  1. ^ Davies, Cliff S.L. (2004), "The Family and Connections of John Wilkins, 1614–72", Oxoniensia, vol. LXIX
  2. ^ a b c d e Sanders, Francis (1900). "Wilkins, John" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 61. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ^ "The Armorial Bearings of the Bishops of Chester". Cheshire Heraldry Society. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  4. ^ Stimson, Dorothy (1931). "Dr. Wilkins and the Royal Society". The Journal of Modern History. 3 (4): 539–563. doi:10.1086/235790. ISSN 0022-2801. JSTOR 1898891.
  5. ^ Alister E. McGrath, A Scientific Theology: Nature (2001), p. 242.
  6. ^ Burnet, Gilbert (1833). Lives, Characters, and an Address to Posterity (2nd ed.). London, England: James Duncan. p. 304.