Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/632

* WILLIBEORD. 540 WILLIS. visited Kome, and received episcopal consecration, together with the pallium of an archbishop. Fix- ing his see at Utrecht, he converted a large num- ber of the inhabitants, and, although he received some cheek upon the death of Pepin in 714, yet the successes of Charles Martel enabled him soon afterwards, under similar favorable auspices, to resume the work, which, after many alterna- tions, ended in the sviccessful establishment of Christianity. Willibrord died in 739 at the monastery which lie had founded at Eehternach, near Tr6ves. His festival is November 7th. His Life was written bv Alcuin ( Eng. trans., London. 1877). WIL'LIMAN'TIC. A city in Windham Coun- ty, Conn., 16 miles northwest of Norwich, on the Xatcliaug River, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford and the Central Vermont railroads (Jlap: Connecticut, G 3). It is the seat of a State noi-mal training school, and has a public library with more than 5000 vol- umes and the Dunham Hall Library. The city is favored with excellent water power, and is noted for the manufacture of cotton thread. Other im- portant products are cotton goods, silk good.s, and fine machinerv. The government, under the re- vised charter of 1896, is vested in a mayor, chosen every two years, and a bicameral council. The water-works are owned and operated by the municipality. First settled about 1822, Willi- niantic was incorporated as a borough in 1833, and became a citv in 1893. Population, in 1890, 8648; in 1900, 8937. WIL'LING, Thomas (1731-1821). An Ameri- can merchant and financier. He was born in Pliiladelphia, was educated at Bath, Eng., and in the Temple, London, and, returning to Phila- delphia, organized, with Robert Morris (q.v.), the famous mercantile firm of Willing & Jlorris, which, during the Revolutionary War, supplied naval and military stores to tlio Govern- ment. After holding various less important po- sitions, he was elected Maj'or of Philadel])hia in 1763, was an associate justice of the Pennsyl- vania Supreme Court from 1767 to 1774, was a member of the Pennsylvania Committee of Cor- respondence, was a delegate to the .ssembly in 1775, and was a member of the Continental Con- gress in 1775-76. In 1780 he. with several asso- ciates, organized the Pennsylvania Bank as a means of procuring supplies for the Continental Army, he hini.self subscribing £5000. He was president of the Bank of North America from 1781 to 1792. and was the first president of the Hank of the United States, organized in 1791. WIL'LIS, Bailey (1857— 1. An American geologist, born at Idlewildon-llndson. lie grad- uated in 1878 at the Coluiiiliia Scliool of ilines, of Columbia University, and from 1870 to 1881 was expert on iron ores for the Tenth Census. In 1881-84 he was geologist of the Nortlicrn transcontinental survey, undertaken by the Nortli- crn Pacific Railway and oflier com]ianies; sub- sequently he was appointed geologist of the United States Geological Survey, in cliarge of the Ap|ialachian division, and afterwards of the Cas- cade Range and Puget .Sound division. He edited th(! (leoloyic Alias of the United Slates, and published many technical pa))ers. WILLIS, Natiia.mkl Pahker (1806-67). An American author, born in Porthmd, Maine. He graduated at Yale College in 1827, where, as an undergraduate, he became known as a writer of religious verse. Some of these verses were pub- lished in a book, SketcJics ( 1827 ). For S. G. Good- rich (q.v.), of Boston, he edited two annuals. The Leiiendary (1828) and The Token (1829). In the latter year Willis established at Boston The American MunthUi Magazine; this in 1831 was merged with the New York Mirror, of which he became associate editor. From 1S31 to 1836 he traveled in Europe and Asia ilinor and con- tributed sketches to the Mirror, which were later published in I'encillings by the Way (3 vols., 1835). On his return to America he conducted a short-lived weekly journal. The Corsair (1839- 40), and later two papers of brief exist- ence. The yeic Mirror (1843-44) and The Even- ing Mirror (1844-45). In 1845 he went again to Europe, returning in 1846. The same year he established The Home Journal, which occupied him until his death at his estate, '"Idlewild," near Newburg, N. Y'. His published works in- clude: Inklings of Adventure (1836, 3 vols.); Loiterings of Travel (1840, 3 vols.) ; Lady Jane, and Other Poems (1844); People I Have Met (18.50); Life Here and There (18.50); Hurry-graphs, or Sketehes of Scenery, Celeb- rities, and Society (1851); .1 Summer Cruise ill the Mediterranean on Board an American Frigate (18.53); A Health Trip to the Tropics (1853); Famous Persons and Places (1854); Out-Doors of Jdleu'ild (1855); The Rag-hag, a Collection of Ephemera, (1855); Paul Fane (1850), a novel; The Convalescent (1859) ; and others, chiefiy prose. His complete poems appeared in 1868. His w-ork was ready, fluent, light, graceful, and various, in the main that of a dilettante, and it was exceedingly popular during Willis's lifetime, but is without endur- ing character. Some of his Scriptural poems and society verses are still read, and his prose yields interesting sketches of contemporaries. Willis was generous to contemporary authors, but made many hostile critics by his indiscreetly personal tone of writing. There is a Life by H. A. Beers in the ""American Men of Letters Series" (1885). WILLIS, RoKERT (1800-75). An English arch.Tologist and ]irofessor of mechanism, born in London. He grailuated at Cains College. Cam- bridge, in 1826, was soon afterwards elected Fraiikland fellow and in 1829 foundation fellow". After his graduation he gave his attention chiefly to mechanism, and in 1837 he Was chosen Jack- sonian professor of applied mechanics at Cam- bridge, ileanwhile he devoted his spare time to the stud.v of architecture and areh;?ology. and his Remarks on the Architecture of the Middle Ages (1835) won ,a high place among vorks on the subject. In 1844 he became a member of the newl,v organized Archa'ological Institute, before which he delivered some of his most important Icclurcs. Among his pul)lications arc: 7Vin- ciplcs of Mechanism (1841); Architectural His- tory of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (1849) ; The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury (1869) ; and a series of lectures on the I'^nglisli cathedrals delivered between 1844 and 1865. WILLIS. Thomas (1621-75). An English aiiatoiDist and jihysician, born at Great Bedwin,