Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/80

 she had always frequented such society. Gay himself could never have wished for a better Filch’ (i. 115).

Her husband, (fl. 1774–1792), born in Durham, played during many years comic characters at Covent Garden and the Haymarket. He was a good actor in comedy, taking parts such as Hardcastle, Justice Woodcock, Sir Anthony Absolute, Tony Lumpkin, Malvolio, Touchstone, Falstaff, Ben in ‘Love for Love,’ Scapin, Shylock, Fluellen, Polonius, Sir Pertinax Macsycophant, and Sir Hugh Evans. His original parts included Don Jerome in the ‘Duenna,’ Lord Lumbercourt in the ‘Man of the World,’ Father Luke in the ‘Poor Soldier,’ Mayor in ‘Peeping Tom,’ John Dory in ‘Wild Oats,’ and Sulky in the ‘Road to Ruin.’ According to a rather extravagant and scarcely credible account of Lee Lewes, he married in the country, as a seventh husband, a Mrs. Grace, who is said to have been the original Jenny in the ‘Provoked Husband.’ She was, in fact, Myrtilla, Mrs. Cibber playing Jenny. She must have been fifty years of age, and Wilson little over twenty. Wilson then married, it is said, a daughter of [q. v.], and afterwards, it is to be presumed, Mrs. Weston. Richard Wilson was a good actor. O'Keeffe (Recollections, ii. 309) says he succeeded Shuter at Covent Garden, that ‘his manner was broad, full, and powerful,’ and that he was ‘ever true in loyalty to his poet, his manager, and his audience.’



WILSON, ADAM (1814–1891), Canadian judge, was born at Edinburgh on 22 Sept. 1814, and educated in that city. He emigrated in 1830 to Trafalgar, co. Halton, in Upper Canada, and went into the employ of his uncle, who owned mills and stores at that place; but after three years he decided to go to the Canadian bar, and in 1834 became articled to Robert Baldwin Sullivan; he was called in Trinity term 1839 to the bar of Upper Canada, having already made such an impression on his tutor that he was in 1840 admitted into partnership with him and Robert Baldwin, the reform leader. He was successful in practice, and became Q.C. in 1850; he was shortly afterwards elected a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. In 1856 he was appointed to the committee for revising the public statutes of the Canadas.

Wilson removed to Toronto before 1855, and in 1859 and 1860 was mayor of that city. In 1859 he entered the legislative assembly of Upper Canada as member for the North Riding of York. Joining the reform party, he became an uncompromising opponent of the Cartier-Macdonald ministry, chiefly on the question of their views as to popular representation. In 1860 he was again returned, but in 1861 was defeated in the election for West Toronto. In 1862 he was elected for his old constituency, and on 24 May of that year became solicitor-general in the coalition ministry led by John Sandfield Macdonald.

On 11 May 1863 Wilson resigned political life on his appointment as puisne judge of the court of queen's bench for Upper Canada. On 24 Aug. he was transferred to the court of common pleas; but at Easter 1868 he again returned to the court of queen's bench. In 1871 he was a member of the law reform commission. In 1878 he was appointed chief justice of the court of common pleas, and in 1884 chief justice of the court of queen's bench of Ontario. He was knighted in 1888. He died at Toronto on 29 Dec. 1891. He was author of ‘A Sketch of the Office of Constable,’ 1861.

Wilson married the daughter of Thomas Dalton, editor of the Toronto ‘Patriot.’ His adopted daughter, Julia Isabella Jordan, married George Shirley.



WILSON, ALEXANDER (1714–1786), first professor of astronomy at Glasgow University, and the father of Scottish letter-founders, son of Patrick Wilson, town clerk of St. Andrews, was born at St. Andrews in 1714. He studied at the university there, and graduated M.A. on 8 May 1733. In 1737 he became assistant to a London surgeon and apothecary. One day he paid a visit to a type-foundry, and, after examining the processes, the idea of an improved method of manufacture of types struck him. He relinquished his profession and returned to St. Andrews in 1739. In 1742, with a friend named Bain, he started a letter-foundry at St. Andrews, which was removed in 1744 to Camlachie, near Glasgow. In 1747 Bain settled at Dublin, but in 1749 the partnership was dissolved. The result of Wilson's efforts was an extensive and improved production of types. He furnished his friends, the brothers Foulis, with their types, especially the Greek (which were held to be unrivalled), and it is to Wilson