Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 62.djvu/87

Wilson reluctantly, relied [see ;, 1821–1857].

For his services at Delhi Wilson was made a K.C.B. on 17 Nov. 1857, and was on 8 Jan. 1858 created a baronet as Sir Archdale Wilson of Delhi; he received the thanks of both houses of parliament and the court of directors of the East India Company, a pension of 1,000l. a year and the war medal and clasp (London Gazette, 17 and 27 Nov. 1857 and 2 Feb. 1858). He was appointed to the divisional staff, Danapur, in January 1858, and commanded the whole of the artillery of the army of Sir Colin Campbell (afterwards Lord Clyde) [q. v.] at the siege of Lucknow in March 1858 and its capture on the 17th. He was mentioned in despatches and received the clasp for Lucknow (ib. 25 May 1858). He went on furlough to England in April 1858, and did not return to India. He was nominated colonel-commandant of horse artillery in October 1858, decorated with the grand cross of the order of the Bath, military division, on 13 March 1867, and was promoted to be lieutenant-general on 6 March 1868. He died on 9 May 1874.

Wilson married, in 1842, Ellen (who survived him), daughter of Brigadier-general Warren Hastings Leslie Frith, colonel-commandant Bengal artillery. He left no issue, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by Roland Knyvet, second son of his elder brother, Rear-admiral George Knyvet Wilson (1798–1866).

[India Office Records; Despatches; Times (London), 11 May 1874; United Service Journal, 1874; Annual Register, 1874; Burke's Baronetage; Bosworth Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence; Medley's A Year's Campaigning in India, 1857–8; The Chaplain's Narrative of the Siege of Delhi, by the Rev. J. E. W. Rotton; Shadwell's Life of Lord Clyde; Colonel Dewé White's Complete History of the Indian Mutiny; Fortnightly Review, April 1883; Thackeray's Two Indian Campaigns; Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny; Kaye's History of the Sepoy War; Norman's Narrative of the Campaign of the Delhi Army, 1858; Holmes's History of the Indian Mutiny, 1888; Stubbs's History of the Bengal Artillery.]  WILSON, ARTHUR (1595–1652), historian and dramatist, baptised 14 Dec. 1595, was the son of John Wilson (according to his baptismal register, but of Richard according to the entry in the matriculation register) of Yarmouth (, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 318). At the age of sixteen (after spending two years in France) Wilson's father sent him to John Davis of Fleet Street to learn courthand, after which he became one of the clerks of Sir Henry Spiller in the exchequer office, but was discharged two years later for his quarrelsomeness (, Desiderata Curiosa, p. 461). He lived then for a year in London, writing poetry and reading, till his money was nearly spent. In 1619 he made the acquaintance of Mr. Wingfield, steward to Robert Devereux, third earl of Essex [q. v.], and Wingfield invited him down to Chartley in Staffordshire. While there Wilson saved a woman-servant from drowning, and Essex, who saw the scene, took a liking to him and made him one of his gentlemen-in-waiting. Wilson distinguished himself by duels and feats of strength, which he relates in his autobiography, and was selected by his master to accompany him in his foreign travels. He was with Essex in Vere's expedition for the defence of the palatinate (1620), in the wars in Holland (1621–23), at the siege of Breda (1624), and in the expedition to Cadiz (1625). In 1630 Essex contracted his second marriage, of which Wilson disapproved, and the countess taking in consequence a great dislike to him, he was forced to leave Essex's service. Resolving to complete his somewhat neglected education, he now matriculated at Oxford (25 Nov. 1631), as a gentleman commoner of Trinity College (, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714;, Athenæ). At Oxford he chiefly devoted himself to the study of physic, alternating it by sometimes disputing with Chillingworth about absolute monarchy, and at other times drinking ‘with some of the gravest bachelors of divinity there’ (, p. 470).

In 1633 Wilson left the university and entered the service of Robert Rich, second earl of Warwick [q. v.] In 1637 he accompanied Warwick to the siege of Breda, thus witnessing its capture by Spinola and its reconquest by Prince Maurice. During the civil war Wilson lived peaceably on the estates of his master in Essex, his only adventures being the rescue of the Countess of Rivers from a mob in August 1642, and an attempt to prevent the plunder by the cavaliers of the Earl of Warwick's armoury in June 1648. His autobiography ends in July 1649. He died about the beginning of October 1652, and was buried in the chancel of Felsted church, Essex (ib. p. 482).

Wilson married, in November 1654, Susan Spitty of Bromfield, Essex, the widow of Richard Spitty (ib. p. 471);, London Marriage Licences, col. 1482). An abstract of his will is given by Bliss in his additions to Wood's ‘Athenæ Oxonienses,’ which shows that his wife died before him and that he left no issue (iii. 320). 