Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/267

 purchased the greater part of Wilkins's manuscripts. The printed books were dispersed.

Wilkins was librarian at Lambeth for little more than three years; but during that time he improved and completed Gibson's catalogue, and also compiled a separate catalogue of the manuscripts. He contributed the Latin prefaces to Chamberlayne's polyglot edition of the Lord's Prayer, and Tanner's 'Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica' [see and, 1674-1735]. He edited the following works: (1) 'Paraphrasis Chaldaica in Librum Chronicorum,' Amsterdam, 1715, 4to; 'NovumTestamentum Aegyptium,vulgo Copticum,' Oxford, 1710, 4to; 'Leges Anglo-Saxonicae Ecclesiasticae et Civiles; accedunt Leges Edvardi Latinae, Gulielmi Conquestoris Gallo-Normannicae, et Henrici I Latinae. Subjungitur Domini Henrici Spelmanni Codex Veterum Statutorum Regni Angliae quae ab ingressu Gulielmi I usque ad annum nonum Henrici III edita sunt. Toti operi praemittitur Dissertatio Epistolaris G. Nicoleoni de Jure Feudali Veterum Saxonum,' London, 1721, fol.; (2) 'Johannis Seldeni Jurisconsulti Opera omnia tam edita quam inedita,' London, 1725, 1726, 3 vols. fol. (3) 'Quinque Libri Moysis Prophetae in Lingua Aegyptis,' London, 1731, 4to; (4) 'Concilia Magnae Britannia et Hiberniae a Synodo Verolamiensi A.D. 446 ad Londinensem A.D. 1717; accedunt Constitutiones et alia ad Historiam Ecclesiae Anglicanae spectantia,' London, 1737, 4 vols. fol. His sole English publication seems to have been a 'Sermon preached at the Consecration of Thomas [Bowers], Lord Bishop of Chichester,' London, 1722, 4to. He left in manuscript an 'Historical Account of the Church of Hadleigh,' which passed into the possession of his successor in the living, Dr. Tanner, and an 'Historia Ecclesiae Alexandrinae.' As an orientalist Wilkins did laborious pioneer work, and the inaccuracy of his scholarship was largely due to the want of adequate apparatus. His fame rests chiefly upon the 'Concilia,' a magnificent monument of learning and industry, even yet only very partially superseded by Haddan and Stubbs's ' Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland,' Oxford, 1869-71, 3 vols. 8vo.



WILKINS, GEORGE (fl. 1607), dramatist and pamphleteer, was a hack-writer of small account, whose works and career are rendered of interest by his professional association with great writers of the day. The burial register of the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, which has been consulted by the present writer, attests that ‘George Wilkins the Poet’ died at Holywell Street, Shoreditch, on 19 Aug. 1603, and was buried in the churchyard on the same day. The entry leaves no doubt that Wilkins ‘the Poet’ was a victim of the plague. Holywell Street, where he lived, was a favourite place of residence at the time for actors and playwrights, who frequented the neighbouring Curtain Theatre. No other reference to this man has been discovered, and no extant writings can be assigned to him. ‘The Poet’ George Wilkins may have been father of the dramatist and pamphleteer. He cannot be identical with him. The latter's publications all appeared at a date subsequent to the burial entry of ‘the Poet’ in 1603, and none of them can be regarded as posthumous works.

The earliest extant book which bore the name of George Wilkins on the title-page was ‘Three Miseries of Barbary: Plague Famine, Civill Warre. With a relation of the death of Mahamet the late Emperor [i.e. Alimad Al Mansúr] and a briefe report of the now present Wars betweene the three Brothers. Printed by W[illiam] I[ones] for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold in Pater Noster Rowe, at the signe of the Sunne’ (Brit. Mus.). The tract (in prose)