Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/534

500 young ladies, 23,340 children in the parochial schools, and fourteen asylums and hospitals. Bishop Wigger received the degree of D. D. from the University of Sapienza, Rome, Italy, in 1869.

WIGGINS, Ezekiel Stone, Canadian meteor- ologist, b. in Queen's county, New Brunswick, 4 Dec, 1839. He became a teacher in Ontario, and in 1866 was appointed superintendent of schools for Prince Edward county. He was graduated at the Philadelphia college of medicine and surgery in 1868 and at Albert college, Ontario, in 1869, and in 1871 was appointed principal of the new institution for the education of the blind at Brant- ford, which post he resigned in 1874. From that year till 1878 he was principal of the Church of England college at St. John. He was an unsuc- cessful candidate for the Dominion parliament in 1878, and the same year was appointed to a perma- nent post in the civil service of Canada. In 1866-'7 he became involved in a controversy with the Universalists, and in the latter year published at Napanee his " Universalism Unfounded." He owes his notoriety chiefly to his predictions of storms, which for many years have been published by newspapers throughout the world. Occasion- ally his prognostications have been verified, but in the great majority of cases it has been otherwise. At best his successes in this department of meteor- ology were simply fortunate conjectures. His basis for the prediction of storms, the juxtaposition of planets, is not regarded by men of science as hav- ing any appreciable effect upon the atmospheric condition of the earth. He has published " Archi- tecture of the Heavens" (Montreal, 1864). — His wife, Susan Anna Gunhilda, b. in Lakeside, Queens co., New Brunswick, 6 April, 1846, greatly aided by her writings and personal appeals in se- curing the passage of the bill to legalize marriage with a deceased wife's sister, through the Canadian senate. In recognition of her services in this par- ticular her bust has been placed in the parliament- ary librarv at Ottawa, Canada.

WIGGLESWORTH, Michael, clergyman, b. in England, 18 Oct., 1631 ; d. in Maiden, Mass., 10 June, 1705. His father, Edward, arrived in New Eng- land with his family in 1638, and in October of that year removed from Charlestown to New Haven, where he resided until his death, in October, 1653. Michael was graduated at Harvard in 1651, and from 1652 till 1654 was a tutor there and studied theology, supplying the pulpit of Charlestown dur- ing the winter of 1653-'4; in 1655 he began to preach in Maiden, where he was settled as the faster in 1657 and remained there till his death, n 1663 he made a voyage to Bermuda in search of health, and during his absence an associate minis- ter was ordained at Maiden. His health prevented him from officiating in the pulpit for about twen- ty years, during which time he studied medicine and became a skilful physician. In 1686 he re- sumed his pulpit labors, continuing to practise as a physician. Cotton Mather delivered his funeral sermon. In it he says : " It was a Surprize unto us to see a Little, Feeble Shadow of a Man, beyond Seventy, Preaching usually Twice or Thrice in a Week ; Visiting and Comforting the Afflicted ; Encouraging the Private Meetings; Catechising the Children of the Flock; and managing the Government of the Church ; and attending the Sick, not only in his own Town, but also in all those of the Vicinity." In 1662 Mr. Wigglesworth completed and published a poem entitled " The Day of Doom, or a Description of the Great and Last Judgment," in which he pictured in vivid colors the terrors of the judgment-day and the awful wrath of an offended God. Thus the poem recommended itself to the sternest of the Calvin- ists as well as to their children. The first edition consisted of eighteen hundred copies, which were disposed of in a little more than a year. In view of the small number of the population at that time, and its sparseness, this indicated a great suc- cess. The poem maintained its popularity, in the rural districts at least, till the time of the Revo- lution. It was twice reprinted in England (in 1671 in London, and in 1711 at Newcastle-upon- Tyne). Ten editions have been printed in this country, the last, with other poems and a memoir, edited by William Henry Burr (New York, 1867). In the same year when the •* Day of Doom " was published, Mr. Wigglesworth wrote a poem en- titled " God's Controversy with New England, written in the Time of the Great Drought, anno 1662, by a Lover of New England's Prosperity." This was not published till 1871, when it was print- ed in the " Proceedings of the Massachusetts His- torical Society." Afterward he issued a new poem, " Meat out of the Eater, or Meditations concern- ing the Necessitv, End, and Usefulness of Afflic- tion to God's Children" (1669 ; 6th ed., 1770). In 1670 he wrote an elegy on the death of his col- league, the Rev. Benjamin Bunker (printed in 1872, in the " New England Historical and Genea- logical Register"). See a sketch of his life by John Ward Dean, with a fragment of his auto- biography, some of his letters, and a catalogue of his library (Albany, 1871). — His son, Samuel, clergyman, b. in Maiden, Mass., 15 Feb., 1689 ; d. in Ipswich Hamlet (now Hamilton), Mass^ 3 Sept., 1768, was graduated at Harvard in 1707, studied medicine, and in March, 1710, began to practise in Ipswich Hamlet. The following December he re- turned to his native town and studied divinity. After preaching at Dracut and Groton for the next two years, he accepted a call at Ipswich Ham- let, and was ordained 27 Oct., 1714. There he re- mained until his death. He published, between 1727 and 1765. nine occasional discourses, besides " A Short Account of the Rev. Mr. Hale, of New- bury," in the "Christian History "(1744); a"Dud- leian Lecture" (1760); and an account of a con- troversy " with the Fourth Church, about Admit- ting Persons from Neighboring Churches" (1765). — His son, Edward, educator, b. in Maiden, Mass., in 1693; d. in Cambridge, Mass., 16 Jan., 1765, was graduated at Harvard in 1710, and studied theol- ogy. When Thom- as Hollis, of Lon- don, established a professorship of theology at Har- vard, Mr. Wiggles- worth was chosen to occupy it, 24 Jan., 1722, and held the office during the rest of his life. In 1724 he was elected a member of the cor- poration of Har- vard. Dr. Wig- glesworth was one of the chief writers in the Whitcfieldian controversy, and in 1745 wrote " An Answer to Mr. Whit ('field's Reply to the College Testimony." In 1754 he delivered two lectures on the "Distinguishing Characters of the Ordinary and Extraordinary