Wilson, John Makemie, D.D., a Presbyterian divine, was born in iNIecklenburg County, N. C, in 17G9. He graduated with the highest honor at Hampden Sid- ney College in 1791 ; studied theology privately under the direction of the Rev. James Hall, D.D. ; was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Orange, N. C, in 1793, and immediately after was sent by the Commission of Synod on a missionary tour through the counties in the lower part of the state. He was ordained in 1795, and continued in this mission work until 1801, when he ac- cepted a call from the congregations of Rocky River and Philadelphia. In 1812 he opened a school espe- cially for the accommodation of the young men of his charge who wished to devote themselves to the minis- try; this school he continued for about twelve years, and twenty-five of his pupils became ministers of the Gospel. He died July 30, 1831. Dr. Wilson possessed a strong, penetrating, and well-cultivated mind. As a inember of the judicatories of the Church, no man of his day was held in higher repute. He preached the Gospel with great fidelity and fervency, and with strong faith in the spirit of God to give it eftect. He published, a Sermon (1804): — Sermon {X^ilV): — and an Appendix to a work on psalmody by the Rev. Dr. Ruffner, of Virginia. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, iv, 90; Foote, Sketches of North Carolina; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A uthors, s. v. (J. L. S.)
Wilson, Joshua Lacy, D.D., a Presbyterian di- vine, was born in Bedford County, Va., Sept. 22, 1774, and in the fall of 1781 removed to the neighborhood of Danville, Ky., with his mother and stepfather, John Templin, father of Terah Templin. He was brought up to the trade of a blacksmith, and had no education beyond what his mother gave him till he was twentj^- two years old. At that period he was converted. He soon after commenced the study of law, but abandoned it for theology; was licensed to preach in 1802, and in 1804 was ordained pastor of Bardstown and Big Spring churches, Ky. In 1805 he sat as a member of the Commission of Synod in the C'umberland difhculties. In 1808 he became pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, where he remained for thirty- eight years, part of the time teaching a classical school. In the great controversy which divided the Presbyte-
rian Church in 1837 he bore an active and prominent part. He died Aug. 14, 1846. Dr. Wilson was a self- educated man, of unbending integrity, candor, and con- scientiousness. F^or thirty-eight years he was at the head of every social, moral, and intellectual enterprise of the day in Cincinnati, and to his personal influence Cincinnati College is largely indebted for its existence and prosperity. He published. Episcopal Methodism, or Dagonism Exhibited (1811), and a number of sermons and theological pamphlets. See Sprague, yl wja^s of the A mer. Pulpit, iv, 308 ; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A uthors. s. V. : Davidson, Hist, of the Presb. Church in Kentucky, p. 364-366. (J. L. S.)
Wilson, MattheAW, D.D., eminent as a Presby- terian divine, a physician, and a teacher, was born in Chester County, Pa., Jan. 15, 1731. He received his education in an academy in New London, Pa., studied theology privately, was licensed to preach in April, 1754, ordained in October, 1755. and installed pastor of the congregations at Lewes and Cool Spring, Del., in April, 1756. He was regularly bred to the medical profession, and few pliysicians of his day manifested more medical skill and learning. He died March 30, 1790. Dr. Wilson was an instructive and persuasive preacher; learned, pious, patriotic, and benevolent in an eminent degree. He contributed medical papers to Aitken^s Amer. Mag. 1775, and Cai-efs Amer. Mus. vol. iv, and Observations on the Winter of 1779-80 to Trans. Amer, Soc. vol. iii; and left prepared for the press (never published) A Therapeutic Alphabet. See Thacher, A me?: Med. Biog. ii, 197; Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, iii, 178; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. A uthors, s. v. (J. L. S.)
Wilson, Robert G., D.D., a Presbyterian divine, was born in Lincoln County, N. C, Dec. 30, 1768. He pursued his preparatory studies at an academy in Salis- bury, N. C. ; graduated at Dickinson College in 1790 ; studied theology privately ; was licensed to preach April 16, 1793, by the Presbytery of South Carolina; and was ordained and installed pastor of Upper Long Cane Church, in Abbeville District, May 22, 1794. He was offered a professorship in South Carolina College, and was also invited to become principal of an academy in Augusta, Ga. ; but he declined these offers, and accepted, in 1805, a call to become pastor of a small Church, then lately organized, in Chillicothe, O., where he remained nineteen years, greatly beloved by his people and signal- ly blessed in his labors. In 1824 he resigned his charge by advice of the presbytery, and accepted an invitation to the presitlency of the Ohio University, at Athens, ovf r which he continued to preside until 1839, when, on ac- count of the increasing infirmities of age, he resigned the office, returned to Chillicothe, and engaged to preach as a stated supply for the Union Church. He died April 17, 1851. Dr. Wilson was an instructive preacher. He excelled as a member of the judicatories of the Church. In no situation, however, in which he was placed were the energies of his mind brought into more vigorous and effective exercise than in the presidency of Ohio Uni- versity. Wlien he entered upon that office, the insti- tution was greath' depressed; but he gave to it the whole power of his vigorous mind, and his success was indicated within a few years by a very considerable in- crease of both funds and students. He published, three single sermons (1817, 1828, 1829): — a sermon in the Presb. Preacher (1833) : — and an Address to the Gradu- ating Class of Ohio University (1836). See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, iv, 122; Foote, Sketches of North Carolina ; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Au- thors, s. V. (J. L. S.)