Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/81

 that we owe the beauty and artistic finish of the Foulis press [see ]. He is specially referred to in the preface to the ‘Homer.’ In 1760 Wilson was appointed first professor of practical astronomy in the university of Glasgow, through the influence of the Duke of Argyll. In 1769 he made his celebrated discovery regarding the solar spots, an account of which appeared in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ of the Royal Society of London, 1774. His view was that the spots are cavities or depressions in the luminous matter which surrounds the sun; and he was the first to establish this by a rigid induction. Wilson was also the author of a speculation in answer to the question, ‘What hinders the fixed stars from falling upon one another?’ His view was that this might depend upon periodical motion round some grand centre of gravitation. It was given to the world in an anonymous tract, ‘Thoughts on General Gravitation, and Views thence arising as to the State of the Universe.’ Assisted by his sons, whom he took into partnership, Wilson still continued and extended the business of type-founding, and in 1772 he published ‘A Specimen of some of the Printing Types cast in the Foundry of Alexander Wilson & Sons.’ Wilson resigned the professorship in 1784, and died at Edinburgh on 18 Oct. 1786. He received the honorary degree of M.D. from St. Andrews on 6 Aug. 1763, and was one of the original members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

He was succeeded in his chair at the university by his son Patrick Wilson (1743–1811), who had much of the original thought and inventive genius of his father. He left 1,000l. to Glasgow University, the interest on which is used to purchase instruments for the professor of astronomy. His portrait, a medallion by James Tassie, is in the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The type-founding business was continued by the Wilson family for many years, a branch being opened in 1832 in Edinburgh, while in 1834 the business was removed from Glasgow to London.



WILSON, ALEXANDER (1766–1813), ornithologist, the son of Alexander Wilson, a distiller, and afterwards weaver, of Paisley, was born in that town on 6 July 1766. He was educated for a short time at a school in Paisley, but, owing to his mother's death and his father's remarriage, had to be removed, and on 31 July 1779 was apprenticed for a term of three years to his eldest sister's husband, William Duncan, a weaver in Paisley. On the expiration of his apprenticeship in 1782 he continued weaving at Lochwinnoch and Paisley, but subsequently for nearly three years he travelled as a packman.

From a very early period he had evinced a strong desire for learning, and had developed a literary taste, especially for poetry. He had composed many poems himself, and unsuccessfully sought when travelling to obtain subscribers towards their publication. These verses were nevertheless issued, and went through two editions in 1790, reappearing in 1791, under the title of ‘Poems, humorous, satirical, and serious.’ His literary efforts being financially unsuccessful, he resumed weaving in Lochwinnoch, and afterwards in Paisley, but went to Edinburgh to take part in the debate held in the Pantheon by a society of literati called ‘The Forum’ on the question whether Allan Ramsay or Robert Fergusson had done more to honour Scottish poetry. In his poem, which was published with that on the same theme by [q. v.] in 1791, under the title of ‘The Laurel disputed,’ Wilson gave preference to Ramsay, a verdict from which his audience dissented. Two other poems were composed and recited by him on this occasion. He also, after corresponding with Burns, paid a visit to that poet in Ayrshire. In 1792 his poem ‘Watty and Meg’ appeared anonymously, and was at first ascribed to Burns.

A little later, having written a piece of severe personal satire against an individual in Paisley, he was sentenced to burn it in public and imprisoned. After his release he left for the American colonies, sailing from Belfast on 23 May 1794, accompanied by his nephew, William Duncan. The ship being full, they obtained passage only by agreeing to sleep on deck. On his arrival, literally penniless, at Newcastle, Delaware, on 14 July, he shouldered his fowling-piece and walked to Philadelphia, shooting by the way his first American bird, a red-headed woodpecker. In Philadelphia he obtained employment with John Aitken, a copperplate printer, but afterwards took to weaving at Pennypack, and for a time in Virginia. In the autumn of 1795 he became a pedlar once more and travelled through New Jersey. On his return he opened a school near Frankford, Pennsylvania, whence he removed to Millerstown and taught in the schoolhouse of that village. Here he studied hard, principally at 