Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/248

 Ripon relics in 1226 (ib. ii. 480), and from that time the claim of Ripon was held to be established. An arm of Wilfrid was believed to be at York (Fabric Rolls, pp. 221–2; Chronicon de Abingdon, ii. 47).

Of brilliant intellect and vigorous and constructive genius, Wilfrid built up the Roman system in England in place of the usages of the Columbite church, in the overthrow of which he had so large a share. While he clung too much to power and wealth, he used them in God's service, and, though he refused to sacrifice them when their surrender was necessary for the well-being of the church, the unfair treatment which he received is a valid excuse for his refusal. His appeals to Rome were contrary to national sentiment; but he is not to be blamed for seeking justice at the only tribunal at which he could hope to obtain it. Courageous and firm of purpose, he was never daunted by danger or persecution. His temper was overbearing, and he was by no means conciliatory towards his opponents. Yet he was lovable; his monks and clergy were faithful to him in his troubles, and regarded him with filial affection. He was a holy as well as a magnificent prelate, and his missionary work in Frisia and in Sussex, carried on in the midst of his troubles, entitles him to a high place among the fathers of the church. The day of St. Wilfrid's deposition in the ‘Calendar’ is 12 Oct., which was not the day of his death, for in 709 it fell on a Saturday. His cult was widely spread and specially prevailed in the north; his banner was displayed at the battle of the standard in 1138, and his seal was held to cure murrain in cattle (Tres Scriptores, p. 440, Surtees Soc.).



WILKES, JOHN (1727–1797), politician, second son of Israel Wilkes, malt distiller, of Clerkenwell, by Sarah, daughter of John Heaton of Hoxton, was born in St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, on 17 Oct. 1727. Israel Wilkes was son of Luke Wilkes, chief yeoman of the removing wardrobe to Charles II, and grandson of Edward Wilkes of Leighton Buzzard (Visitation of Bedfordshire, Harl. Soc.) He throve by his distillery, and lived in the style of a city magnate, keeping his coach-and-six. He was hospitable and fond of lettered society, and, though a churchman, tolerant of dissent in his wife. He died on 31 Jan. 1761, leaving, besides John, two sons and two daughters. Sarah, the elder daughter, was an eccentric recluse—prototype of the Miss Havisham of Dickens's ‘Great Expectations.’ Her sister Mary was thrice married. Heaton, the youngest son, succeeded to the distillery business, mismanaged it, and died on 19 Dec. 1803, without issue. The eldest son, Israel, emigrated to the United States, and died at New York on 25 Nov. 1805, leaving issue by his wife, Elizabeth De Ponthieu (cf., Dict. of Amer. Biogr. ‘Wilkes, Charles, Rear-admiral, U.S.A.,’ who is there described as nephew of John Wilkes).

Wilkes was initiated in the rudiments of learning at a private school at Hertford, where he showed such quickness that it was decided to give him a liberal education. He was accordingly placed under the charge of a presbyterian minister, Leeson of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, from whom he received sound instruction in the classics and a tincture of heretical, especially Arian, theology, which predisposed him to freethinking. From Aylesbury he proceeded to the university of Leyden, where he was entered on 8 Sept. 1744 (, Leyden Students, Index Soc.) Among his contemporaries at