Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/623

Rh W I L W I L 587 few sympathizers in January 1636 for Narragansett Bay. At first they received a grant of land from an Indian chief, which is now included in Seekonk, Massachusetts, and began to build houses, but in June following he and five others embarked in a canoe for Rhode Island, and founded a settlement to which Williams, in remembrance &quot;of God s providence to him in his distress,&quot; gave the name of Pro vidence. In 1639 he was publicly immersed and became pastor of the first Baptist church of Providence. As Massachusetts now began to claim jurisdiction over Nar ragansett Bay, Williams proceeded in June 1643 to Eng land, and through the mediation of his friend Sir Henry Vane, whose acquaintance he had made at Massachusetts, obtained an independent charter, 14th March 1644. In 1649 he was chosen deputy president. He again visited England in 1651 to obtain a more explicit charter, and remained there till 1654, enjoying the friendship of Milton, Cromwell, and other prominent Puritans. On his return to the colony in 1654 he was chosen president or governor, and remained in office till 1658. He lived to the age of eighty-four, but the exact date of his death is uncertain. Williams was the author of a Key into the Language of the Indians of America (written at sea on his lirst voyage to England ; London, 1643, reprinted in vol. i. of Collections of Rhode Island Historical Society, 1827) ; Mr Cotton s Letter Examined and Answered, 1644 ; The Bloody Tcnent of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience, 1644 ; Queries of Highest Consideration, 1644 ; The Bloody Tcnent yet more Bloody, 1652 ; The Hireling Ministry None of Christ s, 1652 ; Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, 1652 ; and George Fox Digged out of his Burrows, 1676. A complete collection of all his letters that have been recovered forms vol. vi. of the Publications of the Narragansett Club. See Lives by Knowles (1833), Gammell (1846), and Elton (1852) ; Spark s Library of American Biography Savage s Genealogical Dictionary of New England Settlers ; Bio graphical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Rhode Island, 1883 ; Guild s Account of the Writings of Roger Williams, 1862; and Dexter s As to Roger Williams and his Banishment from Massa chusetts Bay, 1876&quot;. WILLIAMSPORT, a city of the United States, the county seat of Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, is situated in the valley of the west branch of the Susquehanna river, amid the hills of the Alleghany plateau, and is entered by four railway lines, the Northern Central, the Philadelphia and Erie, the Philadelphia and Reading, and the Corning, Cowanesque, and Antrim. The city is somewhat irregularly laid out, and the streets are mainly unpaved. The popu lation in 1880 was 18,934; in 1870 it was 16,030. Williamsport owes its importance chiefly to its large lumber industry. The healthfulness of its climate and the beauty of the surrounding scenery have made it a popular summer resort in recent years. WILLIBRORD, ST, the apostle of the Frisians, was born about 657. His father, Wilgils, an Angle or, as Alcuin styles him, a Saxon, of Northumbria, withdrew from the world and constructed for himself a little oratory dedicated to St Andrew. The king and nobles of the district endowed him with estates till he was at last able to build a church, over which Alcuin afterwards ruled. Willibrord, almost as soon as he was weaned, was sent to be brought up at Ripon, where he must doubtless have come under the influence of Wilfrid. About the age of twenty the desire of increasing his stock of knowledge ( . 679) drew him to Ireland, which had so long been the headquarters of learning in western Europe. Here he stayed for twelve years, enjoying the society of Egbert and Wictbert, from the former of whom he doubtless received his first impulse to missionary work among the North-German tribes. In his thirty-third year (c. 690) he started with twelve companions for the mouth of the Rhine. These districts were then occupied by the Frisians under their king Rabbod or Radbod. After a time he found in Pippin, the mayor of the palace, a strong supporter, who sent him to Rome, where he was consecrated bishop by Pope Sergius on St Cecilia s Day 696. Bede says that when he returned to Frisia his see was fixed in Utrecht. He now seems to have spent several years in founding churches and the work of conversion, till his success tempted him to pass into those parts of the land which did not own the Frankish sway. Being kindly received by Radbod, but failing to convert him, he passed on to Denmark, whence he carried away thirty boys to be brought up among the Franks. On his return he was wrecked on the holy island of Fosite (Heligoland), where his disregard of the pagan superstition nearly cost him his life. When Pippin died, Willibrord found a supporter in his son Charles Martel, who, according to Alcuin s version of the story, established the bishop in Utrecht upon Radbod s death (719). At this time he was assisted for three years in his missionary work by St Boniface (719- 722). Of the later years of his life we have no special chronological details. He passed throughout his diocese on horseback, working petty miracles and prophetically anticipating the future glory of Charles s son Pippin at his baptism. He was still living when Bede wrote in 731. A. passage in one of Boniface s letters to Stephen III. speaks of his preaching to the Frisians for fifty years, apparently reckoning from the time of his consecration. This would fix the date of his death in 738 ; and, as Alcuin tells us he was eighty-one years old when he died, it may be inferred that he was born in 657, a theory on which all the dates given above are based, though it must be added that they are substantially confirmed by the inci dental notices of Bede. The day of his death was 6th November, and his body was buried in the monastery of Epternac, which he had himself founded. Even in Alcuin s time miracles were reported to be still wrought at his tomb. The chief authorities for Willibrord s life are Alcuin s Vita Willi- brordi, both in prose and in verse, and Bede s Hint. Eccl., v. cc. 9-11. See also Eddius s Vita Wilfridii. WILLIM ANTIC, a borough in the town of Windham, Windham county, Connecticut, United States, is situated in a broken hilly country, on the Westfield river and on three railway lines, the New York and New England, the New York, New Haven, and Hartford, and the Central Vermont. The population in 1880 was 6608. The indus tries consist chiefly of cotton manufactures, in which the town has acquired great prominence, owing to the fine water power afforded by the Westfield river. WILLIS, NATHANIEL PARKER (1806-1867), American author, was descended from George Willis, described as a &quot; Puritan of considerable distinction,&quot; who arrived in New England about 1630 and settled in Cambridge, Mass. Nathaniel Parker was the eldest son and second child of Nathaniel Willis, a newspaper proprietor in Boston, and was born in Portland, Maine, 20th January 1806. After attending Boston grammar school and the academy at Andover, he entered Yale College in October 1823. Although he did not specially distinguish himself as a student, university life had considerable influence in the development of his character, and furnished him with much of his literary material. Immediately after leaving Yale he published in 1827 a volume of Poe ticat Sketches, which attracted some attention, although the critics found in his verses more to blame than to praise. It was followed by Fvf/itive Poetry (1829) and Poems (1831). He also con tributed frequently to magazines and periodicals. In 1829 he started the American Monthly Magazine, which was continued from April of that year to August 1831, but failed to achieve success. On its discontinuance he went to Europe as foreign editor and correspondent of the JK~ew York Mirror. To this journal he contributed a series of letters, which, under the title Pencillings by the Way, were