Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/451

 WILJIER

WILSON

11, 1812. He was graduated from Kenyon col- lege, Ohio, iu 1833, and at the Virginia Theologi- cal seminary, Alexandria, and was admitted to the diaconate in July, 1834, and advanced to the priestliood in May, 1838. He was chaplain of the University of Virginia, 1838-39, and a chaplain in the U.S. army, 1 839-43. He was in charge of Hun- gar's and St. Paul's parishes, Virginia, 1843-48 ; was rector of St. Mark's church, Philadelphia, 1848-61, and on the outbreak of the civil war he removed to his plantation in Albemarle county, Va. In 1863 he went to England to purchase Bibles for the Confederate army, and was captured and confined in Washington, D.C. He was elected second bishop of Louisiana in 1866, and was consecrated Nov. 7, 1866, by Bishops Hopkins, Green and R. H. Wilmer, assisted by Bishop Quintard, and succeeded in reconstruct- ing the disorganized parish, and restoring the diocese to a j)rosperous condition. He died in New Orleans, La.. Dec. 2, 1878.

WILMER, Richard Hooker, second bishop of Alabama and 72d in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Alexandria, Va., March 15, 1816 ; son of the Rev. William Holland (q.v.) and Marion H. (Cox) Wilmer ; grandson of Simon and Anne (Ringold) Wilmer, and of Richard and Jane (Ross) Cox, and a descendant of Edward Taylor, the immigrant, who settled in Monmouth county, N. J., in the seventeenth century, inherit- ing much property from his brother, Matthew- Taylor. He Avas graduated from Yale in 1836, and from the A^irginia Theological seminary in 1839 ; was ordered deacon in 1839 by Bishop Channing Moore, and ordained priest at the Monumental church, Richmond, Va., on Easter day, 1840, by the same bishop. He was married, Oct. 4, 1840, to Margaret, daughter of Alexander and Lucy Shandon (Rives) Brown of Albemarle county, Va., the former a native of Perth, Scot- land, and the latter a sister of Hon. William Cabell Rives, the Virginia statesman. He was rector of the following churches in Virginia : St. Paul's, Goochland county, 1839-40; St. John's, Fluvanna county, 1840-42 ; Grace and Wickliffe, Clark county, Emmanuel, Loudoun county, and St. Stephen's and Trinity, Bedford county, 1842- 59, and Emmanuel, Henrico county, 1859-62. In 1862 he was elected bishop of Alabama and was consecrated, March 6, 1862, in St. Paul's church, Richmond, Va., by Bishops Meade, Elliott and Johns. In 1865 he issued a pastoral letter stating that no such thing as government existed in the South, and recommending the omission of the prayer " for those in civil authority.'' In conse- quence of this letter. General Thomas in a mili- tary order suspended the bishop and clergy and closed the churches in the state, and they re- mained closed until the order was revoked by

President Johnson. The degree of A.M., was conferred on him by Yale in 1846 ; that of D.D., by William and Mary in 1857 ; by the Uni- versity of the South, 1878, and that of LL.D. by the University of Cambridge, England, in 1867, and by the University of Alabama in 1880. He is the author of : Tlie Recent Past, from a Southern Standpoint : Reminiscences of a Grand- father (1887 and two later editions), and a Guide- Book for Young Churchmen, besides a large num- ber of pamphlets and miscellaneous writings. He died at Spring Hill, Ala., June 14, 1900.

WILMOT, David, senator, was born at Beth- any, Pa., Jan. 20, 1814. He attended an acad- emy at Aurora, N.Y. ; in 1834 was admitted to the bar at Wilkesbarre, Pa., and practised in Towanda. He supported Van Buren in 1836, and was a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania in the 29th, '30th and 31st congresses, 1845-51. When on Aug. 8. 1846, a bill appropri- ating $2,000,000 for the purchase of Mex- ican territory out- side of Texas was- introduced in the house, Wilmot pro- posed as an amend- ment his famous pro- viso " that as an ex- press and fundamen- ^"^ tal condition of the acquisition of any territory from the republic of Mexico by the United States neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of the said territory except for crime whereof the partj^ should first be duly convicted." The bill as amended passed the house, but failed in the senate, and from that time until June 9, 1861, when slavery in all territories was prohibited, the proviso was brought up in con- nection with the admission of each new territory. He supi^orted the free soil ticket in 1848. and iu 1854 became a Republican ; was president judge of the 13th district of Pennsylvania, 1853-61 ; a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1856 and 1860, and in 1857 was the unsuc- cessful candidate for governor of Pennsylvania. In 1861 he was elected to the U.S. senate to suc- ceed Simon Cameron, who had resigned to enter Lincoln's cabinet. He served until the expira- tion of Cameron's term, March 3, 1863. when he became judge of the U.S. court of claims by ap- pointment of President Lincoln. He died in Towanda. Pa.. :\Iarch 16. 1868.

WILSON, Alexander, ornithologist, was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766 ; son of Alexan-

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