Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/284

 O'Brien [q. v.] as shadows of Foote and Woodward, and says ill-naturedly: With not a single comic power endued, The first a mere mere mimic's mimic stood, but formed subsequently a more favourable opinion. Wilkinson caught the very appearance of the people he imitated, even, it is said, when they were young and good-looking women. Plain himself, he could make himself look like Peg Woffington. His mimicries involved him in endless quarrels, but his victims, with the exception of Garrick, always ended by forgiving him. As a manager he was exemplary, and the York circuit in his day as a recruiting ground rivalled Bath and surpassed Norwich. He reformed abuses of theatrical usage, especially the personal applications of the actors and sale of tickets to individual patrons, and was honourable and liberal. He engaged every performer of distinction or notoriety, from Mrs. Siddons to dancing dogs, and, in spite of the caprices of fortune, made money. A man of good birth and education, a gourmet, a free liver and a humourist, he enjoyed great popularity. Charles Mathews the elder speaks of him as ‘a polished gentleman’ and ‘a Chesterfield.’ He had, however, a curious method of speech, jolting out, as from a bag, disconnected phrases; behind a gruff manner he disguised a kind disposition. In later years, with impaired health, he grew melancholy. His portrait by Atkinson is in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club.

In 1790 Wilkinson published his ‘Memoirs’ in four volumes (York, 12mo; Dublin, 1791), and in 1795 his ‘Wandering Patentee, or a History of the Yorkshire Theatres,’ in four similar volumes (York, 12mo). These, though they have been frequently sneered at and condemned, are among the most amusing and trustworthy theatrical documents we possess. In them he included some of Foote's farces in which he was in the habit of appearing, together with the ‘Mirror, or Actor's Tablet, with a Review of the Old and New Theatrical Schools,’ and other rather miscellaneous matter. ‘Original Anecdotes respecting the Stage and the Actors of the old School, with Remarks on Mr. Murphy's Life of Garrick,’ was printed posthumously about 1805, being made up from articles contributed to the ‘Monthly Mirror.’ Only twelve copies are said to have been struck off, and, like all Wilkinson's books, it is scarce.

[Particulars of Wilkinson's life are drawn principally from his Memoirs, and of his management from his Wandering Patentee. Much information is supplied in Genest's Account of the English Stage and Hitchcock's Historical View of the Irish Stage; Dibdin's Annals of the Edinburgh Stage; Thespian Dictionary; Michael Kelly's Reminiscences; O'Keeffe's Recollections; Bernard's Retrospection of the Stage; Clark Russell's Representative Actors; Georgian Era; Stirling's Old Drury Lane; Bryan's Dict. of Painters; Lowe's Bibliography; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Churchill's Poetical Works.]  WILKINSON, WILLIAM (d. 1613), theological writer, matriculated as a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, on 12 Nov. 1568, proceeded B.A. in 1571–2, and commenced M.A. in 1575. In 1579, while acting as a schoolmaster in Cambridge, he published ‘A Confutation of certaine articles delivered unto the Familye of Love, with the exposition of Theophilus, a supposed Elder in the sayd Familye,’ London, 4to, a treatise directed against Henry Nicholas [q. v.], the founder of the ‘Family of Love.’ Some criticisms of notes collected out of their gospel by John Young (d. 1605) [q. v.], bishop of Rochester, were prefixed, and Wilkinson himself added a sketch of the history of the movement. The book was dedicated to Richard Cox (1500–1581) [q. v.], bishop of Ely, who prefixed a commendatory note. In 1580, while residing in London in the parish of St. Botolph, he published ‘A very godly and learned treatise of the Exercise of Fastyng, described out of the word of God, very necessarye to bee applyed unto our churches in England in these perillous dayes,’ London, 8vo, dedicated to Lady Paget and Edward Carey, one of her majesty's privy chamber. On 3 May 1588 he received a dispensation to hold, though a layman, the prebend of Fridaythorpe in York Cathedral, in which he had been installed on 31 Jan. 1587–8. He died in 1613. To Wilkinson may also be ascribed an undated translation by ‘W. W.’ of ‘M. Luther's Preface on the Epistle to the Romans,’ London, 8vo.

[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 179; Strype's Annals of the Reformation, 1824, II. i. 486, ii. 275, 300; Ames's Typographical Antiquities, ed. Herbert.]  WILKS, JOHN (d. 1846), swindler, was the only son of John Wilks, by his wife Isabella (d. 19 Jan. 1846).

His father, (1765?–1854), attorney, born in 1764 or 1765, was son of Matthew Wilks, minister at Whitefield's tabernacle in Moorfields. He was an attorney by profession, and on 31 July 1830 was returned