Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/157

  just at the critical time when enlarged gun-vents and distorted muzzles were rendering Wilson's guns useless. The arrival of British forces on the 29th caused Vandamme to raise the siege on the following day, leaving his battering guns behind. The successful defence was ascribed by all concerned to the artillery and the 53rd regiment. Wilson's services were rewarded by promotion to the rank of captain-lieutenant. In consequence of the gallantry displayed by the fishermen of Nieuport the Duke of York incorporated them into a company of artillery, and gave the command of it to Wilson in June 1794.

Wilson took part in the battle of Tournay on 23 May 1794. He commanded the artillery at the defence of Nieuport this year, when General Diepenbrook with 1,500 men held the French army of 40,000 men under General Moreau at bay for nineteen days. On the capitulation Wilson became a prisoner of war, and was not exchanged for nine months. He commanded the royal artillery in the expedition under Major-general Welbore Ellis Doyle to Quiberon Bay in 1795; shortly after the capture of Isle Dieu he returned to England. In 1796 he went to the Cape of Good Hope with a company of artillery, but returned home the following year. In May 1798 he went to Ostend in the expedition under Major-general Sir Eyre Coote, where he was again taken prisoner and sent to Lille. He was exchanged in 1799. In 1800 he was sent to the West Indies, where he remained for five years, in the last three of which he commanded the artillery. He commanded his arm at the capture of St. Lucia on 22 June 1803, of Tobago on 30 June 1803, and of Surinam on 5 May 1804.

On his return to England in 1806 Wilson commanded the royal artillery in the northern district until 1810, when he went to Ceylon to command his regiment there. He returned home in 1815, and two years afterwards went to Canada, where he commanded the royal artillery until 1820. His services were rewarded in 1836 by the distinction of a knight commandership of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic order. He died on 8 May 1842 at Cheltenham. Wilson was twice married: first, in 1789, to a daughter of John Lees; and, secondly, in 1825, to a daughter of Jacob Glen of Chambly, near Montreal. There was no issue of either marriage. There is a black-and-white portrait of Wilson in the Royal Artillery Institution at Woolwich.



WILSON-PATTEN, JOHN, (1802–1892), born on 26 April 1802, was second of the two sons of Thomas Wilson (formerly Patten) of Bank Hall, Warrington, Lancashire. His father had in 1800 assumed the sole surname of Wilson in place of Patten by testamentary direction of Thomas Wilson, son of (1663–1755) [q. v.], bishop of Sodor and Man, to whose estates Patten succeeded. The family altered the surname to Wilson-Patten a few years later. John's mother, Elizabeth, was eldest daughter of Nathan Hyde of Ardwick. His elder brother Thomas died at Naples 28 Oct. 1819, aged 18. John's schooldays were passed at Eton, and he went thence to Magdalen College, Oxford (14 Feb. 1821). Here he became intimate with many men who afterwards rose to great eminence, among others Edward G. G. S. Stanley, afterwards Lord Stanley and fourteenth earl of Derby. After leaving Oxford he travelled for some years on the continent, but married in London (15 April 1828), and in Aug. 1830 entered parliament as representative, with his friend's father Lord Stanley, afterwards thirteenth earl of Derby, of his native county of Lancaster. He voted for the second reading of the Reform Bill, and did not seek re-election in 1831, giving place to (Sir) [q. v.], but at the first election under that bill in 1832 he re-entered parliament as colleague of his friend Edward Stanley (afterwards Lord Stanley) for the newly created division of North Lancashire. This constituency he continued to represent till, on the return of Disraeli to office in 1874, he was created Baron Winmarleigh. His long career in the House of Commons was remarkable for the fact that, though a strong conservative, he was an advocate of industrial and labour reforms, irrespective of party. He supported an early bill for dealing with the evils of the truck system, and took a most important part in obtaining the removal of the tax on printed calicoes, which led to great developments in the manufacturing trade of South Lancashire. In 1833 he opposed Lord Ashley's bill to limit the hours of the employment of women and children in factories, carrying by a majority of one his motion for a royal commission to inquire fully into the question [see, seventh ]. He held for a few months in 1852 the ap-