Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/118

  hart's Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk, vol. iii.; Gilfillan's Gallery of Literary Portraits; Findlay's Personal Recollections of De Quincey, 1886; Maclise Portrait Gallery, ed. Bates; Parmenides [De Quincey] in the Edinburgh Literary Gazette of 1829.] 

WILSON, JOHN (1774–1855), sea-painter, son of James Wilson, shipmaster, and Eleonora Masterton, his wife, was born at Ayr on 20 Aug. 1774 (Ayr Parish Register). When thirteen years of age he was apprenticed to John Norie of Edinburgh, who, although by business a house-painter, not infrequently executed landscape panels of some merit in the rooms he decorated. On the completion of his apprenticeship, which was not without influence upon his future, he had some lessons in picture-painting from Alexander Nasmyth [q. v.], and then practised as a drawing-master in Montrose for two years, at the end of which he went to London. There he soon found employment as a scene-painter at Astley's Theatre in Lambeth Road, and his scenery is said to have been good. His name appears for the first time in the Royal Academy catalogue of 1807, but, although he exhibited a good many pictures there, his principal works were sent to the British Institution and the Society of British Artists. In 1826 he was awarded a 100l. premium for a picture of the battle of Trafalgar (purchased by Lord Northwick), painted in competition for a prize offered by the directors of the former society, and in the formation of the latter in 1823–4 he took a leading part. He was also elected an honorary member of the [Royal] Scottish Academy in 1827, and contributed regularly to its exhibitions. His later years were spent at Folkestone, where he found congenial subjects for his pictures, which usually represent coast scenery and the sea with shipping. His work is fresh and vigorous, and, if somewhat lacking in delicacy, pictorial in motive and arrangement, while it is marked by much truth of observation and directness of expression. He was a prolific painter, and between 1807 and 1856 showed 525 pictures at the three London exhibitions already named. There are two pictures by him in the National Gallery of Scotland and one at South Kensington Museum. On 20 April 1855 he died at Folkestone. Wilson, who was familiarly known as ‘Old Jock,’ was of a sociable disposition, a keen observer, a brilliant conversationist, and his stories of Robert Burns [q. v.] and other famous men he had met were in great request among those who knew him.

In 1810 he married a Miss Williams, and their son, John W. Wilson, who died in 1875, followed his father's profession, choosing landscape and farmyard subjects with figures.

[Gibson's View of the Arts of Design, 1816; Redgraves' Century of Painters, 1865; Redgrave's, Bryan's, and Graves's Dictionaries; Armstrong's Scottish Painters, 1888; Brydall's Art in Scotland, 1889; Catalogue of National Gallery of Scotland.] 

WILSON, JOHN (1780–1856), general, born in 1780, was commissioned as ensign in the 28th foot on 26 March 1794, and became lieutenant on 12 Aug. 1795. He went with part of the regiment to the West Indies in 1796, and was present at the capture of St. Lucia in May and of St. Vincent in June. He was made prisoner and taken to Guadaloupe in July, and, after he had been exchanged, he was again made prisoner in the British Channel in 1797. He rejoined his regiment at Gibraltar, and took part in the capture of Minorca in November 1798. On 18 Jan. 1799 he was given a company in the newly formed Minorca (afterwards the 97th, or queen's German) regiment. He served with it in the expedition to Egypt in 1801, and was present at the battle of Alexandria on 21 March, where the regiment greatly distinguished itself. He was promoted major on 27 May 1802.

In 1808 the 97th was sent to Portugal. It landed on 19 Aug., and two days afterwards fought at Vimiero as part of Anstruther's brigade. Wilson was severely wounded. On 22 Dec. he obtained a lieutenant-colonelcy in the royal York rangers. In January 1809 he went back to the Peninsula and joined the Lusitanian legion raised by Sir Robert Thomas Wilson [q. v.] He was employed with it in the neighbourhood of Ciudad Rodrigo, harassing the French posts, one of which he surprised at Barbara de Puerco, at the end of March. In 1810 he was made chief of the staff of Silveira, who commanded the Portuguese troops in the northern provinces. In August he saved the rear-guard of the corps, ‘in circumstances of such trying difficulty that he received the public thanks’ of Beresford (, bk. xi. chap. v). In October orders came out for him to rejoin his regiment (York rangers), but Wellington represented that ‘the loss of his services will be seriously felt’ (Despatches, vi. 543), and he remained with the Portuguese army. At this time he was harassing the rear of Masséna's army at Coimbra, in concert with Colonel (afterwards ‘Sir’ Nicholas) Trant [q. v.]

In 1811 he was made governor of the province of Minho. At the head of the Minho militia he had a successful affair at Celorico on 22 March, and was actively engaged on