Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/271

 named by Cromwell to execute the office of chancellor, John Owen and Thomas Goodwin being among his colleagues. In 1656 he increased his influence by marrying Robina, widow of Peter French, canon of Christ Church, and sister of Cromwell, from whom he obtained a dispensation to retain his wardenship, in spite of a statute against marriage.

As warden of Wadham Wilkins exercised a wise and beneficent rule. The college quickly became the most flourishing in the university. The cavaliers gladly placed their sons under the care of one who strove to be tolerant. Youths of promise were attracted by his learning and versatility. During his wardenship the college numbered among its alumni Christopher Wren, Seth Ward, John, lord Lovelace, Sir John Denham, Sir Charles Sedley, Thomas Spratt, Samuel Parker, and William Lloyd. Musical parties were held in the college and foreign artistes welcomed there. Several of the London ‘philosophers’ having migrated to Oxford, the weekly meetings were resumed within the warden's lodgings. The London society regularly corresponded with the Oxford branch, which counted among its members ‘the most inquisitive’ members of the university. Prominent among these were Seth Ward, Robert Boyle, Sir W. Petty, John Wallis, Jonathan Goddard, Ralph Bathurst, and Christopher Wren. Of this brilliant group Wilkins was the centre; and he deserves, more than any other man, to be esteemed the founder of the Royal Society.

Many royalists were deeply attached to Wilkins. ‘He is John Evelyn's “deare and excellent friend,” with whom he sups at a magnificent entertainment in Wadham Hall (10 July 1654); whom he goes to hear at St. Paul's, when he preached in the presbyterian fashion before the lord mayor (10 Feb. 1656), and to whom, at Sayes Court, he presents his “rare burninge glasse.” Wilkins's services to the university were considerable, and Evelyn observes that “he tooke great pains to preserve the universities from the ignorant, sacrilegious Commanders and Soldiers, who would faine have demolish'd all places and persons that pretended to learning.”’

On 3 Sept. 1659 Wilkins resigned the wardenship of Wadham on his appointment, by parliament, on the petition of the fellows, to the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge (17 Aug. 1659). He had been incorporated at Cambridge in 1639; he was reincorporated as D.D. on 18 March 1659. At Trinity ‘he revived learning by strict examinations at elections; he was much honoured there and heartily loved by all.’ At the Restoration, notwithstanding an earnest petition from the fellows of his college, he was deprived of his mastership, which had been promised to [q. v.] many years before.

Wilkins lost no time in making his peace with the royalist party. His moderation and gentleness in the past had secured him many powerful friends at court. He was made a prebendary of York on 11 Aug. 1660, and in the same year rector of Cranford, Middlesex; and became in 1663 dean of the collegiate church of Ripon (cf. Sloane MS. 1326, f 40, b; the date of 1668 given elsewhere is wrong); he vacated the rectory of Cranford in 1662 on being presented by the king to the vicarage of St. Lawrence Jewry. He became preacher to Gray's Inn in 1661. He had to contend for a while with the not unnatural dislike of Sheldon, the chief dispenser of the royal preferment; but, by the intervention of Ward, now bishop of Exeter, this was to a great extent removed. In 1666 he was made vicar of Polebrook, Northamptonshire, in 1667 prebendary and precentor of Exeter, and in 1668 prebendary of Chamberlain Wood in St. Paul's Cathedral.

During the early years of Charles II's reign Wilkins took a leading part in the foundation of the Royal Society. The founding of a ‘Colledge for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning’ was discussed at a meeting at Gresham's College on 28 Nov. 1660, when Wilkins was appointed chairman, and a list of forty-one persons judged likely and fit to join the design was drawn up. At the next meeting the king's approval of the scheme was notified, and on 12 Dec. it was resolved that the number of the society should be fixed at fifty-five. In October 1661 the king offered to become a member, and next year the society was incorporated under the name of the ‘Royal Society,’ the charter of incorporation passing the great seal on 15 July 1662. Wilkins was its first secretary.

There are numerous references to Wilkins at this period of his life in Evelyn's and Pepys's ‘Diaries.’ In July 1665 Evelyn writes: ‘I called at Durdans, where I found Dr. Wilkins, Sir W. Petty, and Mr. Hooke contriving chariots, a wheel for one to run races in, and other mechanical inventions; perhaps three such persons together were not to be found elsewhere.’ In 1666 Wilkins's vicarage-house, goods, and valuable library, as well as the manuscript of his work on the ‘Real Character,’ were destroyed by the Great Fire of London.

In 1668, by the influence of George Vil-