RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Wilsnack Wilson
Clare, and Candish, and was for several years rector of Sudbury, Sussex. He was, however, a Puritan rather than a churchman, and on Apr. 8, 1630, he sailed for Massachusetts with John Winthrop (q.v.). Landing at Salem, he soon removed to Charlestown, where within a few months he organized what was to become the First Church in Boston. He was ordained its teacher by his own communicants, but in 1631-32 he was in England, where he was ordained pastor. He was again in England in 1634-35, and soon after he had returned to America the Antinomian Controversy (see ANTINOMIANISM AND ANTINOMIAN ConTrRoveERsI&#sS, II., 2) invaded his congregation. With Winthrop Wilson became one of the principal opponents of the movement and of its leader, Anne Hutchinson; but before it was settled Wilson was appointed chaplain to the expedition against the Pequots. Later he was a companion of John Eliot (q.v.) in his labors for the conversion of the Indians. His two colleagues, both of whom he outlived, were John Cotton and John Norton (qq.v.).
The principal writings of Wilson were Some Helps to Faith (London, 1625); A Song of Deliverance for the Lasting Remembrance of God’s Wonderful Works (1626; new ed., Boston, 1680); The Day Breaking, if not the Sun Rising, of the Gospel with the Indians in New England (1647; new ed., New York, 1865); and A Seasonable Watch-W ord unto Christians against the Dreams and Dreamers of this Generation (Cambridge, Mass., 1677; the last sermon of Wilson, preached Nov. 16, 1665).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 12-15, New York, 1859; A. W. MacClure, Lives of the Chief Fathers of New England, ii., Boston, 1870.
2. Presbyterian missionary to India and educator; b. at Lauder (18 m. s.e. of Edinburgh) Dec. 11, 1804; d. at Bombay, India, Dec. 1, 1875. From early childhood he knew what personal religion was. During his college course at the University of Edinburgh, through tutoring some Anglo-Indian boys his mind was turned toward India. He was a diligent student of natural science as well as of languages, and besides taking his theological course he further qualified himself before going out by attending medical classes. He sailed in the service of the Scottish Missionary Society, but shortly afterward the Church of Scotland awoke to missionary enterprise and took over the society’s work. Wilson became head of the mission college in Bombay, and in that city, where he is still remembered as perhaps the greatest of her citizens, he spent his long, laborious, and influential life. He rapidly acquired a wide and profound acquaintance with Indian languages and literature, knowledge which he turned to use in multifarious controversial writings and public disputations in the cause of Christianity and in research into the obscure field of Indian antiquities. While on cordial terms with Dr. Duff, he laid greater stress on work among the common people, on their own ground, in the vernacular. His first wife, who went out with him, did much in her brief six years for the cause of female education. In 1848, like all the Church of Scotland missionaries, he adhered to the Free Church. He visited the Holy Land, publish-
ing in 1845 Lands of the Bible, and stirring up interest in Syrian missions. In 1846, on a visit home, he married again, and for the next twenty years his wife evinced unusual interest and attained’ great success In mission work among Indian women of all ranks. He himself became vice-chancellor of Bombay University, a position of vast educational importance, and president of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. His relations with the governor, Sir William Elphinstone, were close and intimate. In 1870 he was called to the moderator’s chair of the Free Church General Assembly, taking his place among the leaders on the progressive side and afterward returning to end his days in Bombay.
BisitioGRapHy: Wilson was the author of An Exposure of the Hindu Religion, and A Second Exposure (Bombay, 1832-34); Memoirs of Mrs. Wilson (Edinburgh, 1838); Lands of the Bible Visited and Described (2 vols., 1847); History of the Suppression of Infanticide in Western India (Bombay, 1855); India Three Thousand Y ears Ago (1858); and Indian Caste, ed. P. Peterson (2 vols., 1877). For his life consult: G. Smith, Life of John Wilson, London, 1878; R. Hunter, Hist. of Free Church Missions in India and Africa, ib. 1873; G. Smith, Life of Alexander Duff, ib. 1881; J. Marrat, Two Standard Bearers in the East, ib. 1882; DNB, Ixii. 113-115.
WILSON, JOHN A: United Presbyterian; b. at Pleasantville, Pa., Oct. 4, 18389. He was graduated from Westminster College, Pa. (A.B., 1864), and, after studying law and practising for two years, from Alleghany Theological Seminary (1872); he then held pastorates at Beaver, Pa. (1872-76), St. Louis (1876-86), and Wooster, O. (1886-93), and since 1893 has been professor of church history and pastoral theology at Alleghany Theological Seminary, Pittsburg.
WILSON, JOHN LEIGHTON: Presbyterian, Southern Church; b. in Sumter County, 8. C., Mar. 25, 1809; d. near Mayesville, 8. C., July 13, 1886. He was graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., 1829, and from Columbia Theological Seminary, 8. C., 1833; was foreign missionary in Western Africa, 1834-53; secretary of Foreign Missions for the Presbyterian Church, New York, 1853-61; for the Southern Presbyterian Church, Columbia, 8. C., 1861-85, and secretary emeritus, 1885-86. He was instrumental in breaking up the slave-trade in Africa. He made a grammar and dictionary of the Grebo and Mpongwe languages, and translated parts of the Bible. He edited The Foreign Record, New York, 1853-61, and The Missionary, Baltimore, 1861-85. He wrote Western Africa: Its History, Condition, and Prospects (New York, 1857).
WILSON, JOSEPH DAWSON: Reformed Episcopolian; b. in New York City July 9, 1840. He was educated at the College of the City of New York (then called the Free Academy), St. Stephen’s College, Annandale, N. Y. (B.A., 1863), and the General Theological Seminary (graduated, 1866); was ordained to the priesthood of the Protestant Episcopal Church; he was curate of St. Luke’s, New York City (1866-67), and rector of Calvary, Pittsburg, Pa. (1867-74). He then left the Protestant Hpiscopal Church for Reformed Episcopalianism, and was rector of Christ Church, Peoria, Ill. (1874- 1879); St. John’s, Chicago (1879-95); acting rec-
Wilson Winchester