cons. 15 Nov. 1668 bp. of CHESTER
First sat 19 Oct. 1669; last sat 30 Oct. 1672
b. 1614, eldest s. of Walter Wilkins, goldsmith of Oxf. and Jane, da. of Dr John Dod. educ. g.s. Oxf.; New Inn Hall, Oxf. matric. 1627; Magdalen Hall, Oxf. BA 1631, MA 1634; ord. deacon 1636, priest 1637; incorp. Camb. 1639, BD 1648, DD 1649. m. (1) bef. 1645, unknown; (2) 1656, Robina (d.1689), da. of Robert Cromwell‡ of Hunts., wid. of Peter French, canon, Christ Church, Oxf. and sis. of Oliver Cromwell‡, lord protector. d.s.p. d. 19 Nov. 1672; will 16 Nov. 1672, pr. 16 Jan. 1673.1
Chap. to Charles II 1667.
Vic. Fawsley, Northants. 1637, St. Laurence Jewry, London 1662-8, Polebrook Northants. 1666-7; chap. to William Fiennes, Visct. Saye and Sele, 1637-c.40, to George Berkeley†, 8th Bar. Berkeley c.1641-4, to Charles Louis, prince elector Palatine of the Rhine c.1644-8; preacher, Gray’s Inn 1645, 1660; preb. York 1660-8, Exeter 1667-8, St. Paul’s 1667-8; rect. Cranford Mdx. 1661-2, Wigan 1668-72; dean, Ripon 1660-8.
Warden, Wadham, Oxf. 1648-59; master Trinity, Camb. 1659-60.
FRS 1662, sec. 1663-8.
Also associated with: Canons Ashby, Northants. and Chancery Lane, London.
Likenesses: oil on canvas by M. Beale, c.1668, Wadham, Oxf.; oil on canvas by M. Beale, c.1670-72, The Royal Society.
As a celebrated natural philosopher who wrote on the possibilities of space travel, John Wilkins was an unconventional churchman. His early background was Puritan: it seems reasonable to assume that he was influenced by his maternal grandfather, ‘Decalogue Dod’, and he almost certainly came within the ambit of the Baptist, John Tombes, whilst at Magdalen Hall. He had little difficulty in accommodating himself to the Interregnum authorities (helped by his marriage to a younger sister of Oliver Cromwell) and developed an influential circle of political connections that no doubt assisted him in adapting to the demands of the Restoration regime. His ‘experimental club’ at Wadham attracted other ‘Christian virtuosi’ such as Seth Ward, later successively bishop of Exeter and Salisbury, and Sir Christopher Wren‡.2 Four future bishops (Gilbert Ironside, of Bristol and Hereford, Samuel Parker, of Oxford, Thomas Sprat, of Rochester, and Seth Ward), one peer, John Lovelace, 3rd Baron Lovelace, and eight members of the post-1660 Commons studied at Wadham during his mastership. At the Restoration Wilkins grew in popularity as a natural philosopher and innovator. Despite negative observations by Samuel Pepys‡, who denigrated Wilkins’ abilities as a preacher, his plain sermons, delivered as moral or philosophical lectures, seem to have appealed to the restive Charles II.3
Wilkins’ parliamentary activity predated his elevation to the episcopate. In the late summer of 1667, in the midst of the political crisis over the dismissal of Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, a plan for comprehension was mooted. A bill was drafted, but although it was never presented to either House, it nevertheless led to something of a minor pamphlet war.4 Wilkins (a protégé of both George Villiers, 2nd duke of Buckingham, and Sir Orlando Bridgeman‡, the lord keeper), was then chosen as the ideal broker between the court and the nonconformists. Together with Bridgeman, Sir Matthew Hale‡, Edward Montagu, 2nd earl of Manchester, Edward Stillingfleet, later bishop of Worcester, and John Tillotson, the future archbishop of Canterbury who was married to Wilkins’ stepdaughter, he developed new proposals for comprehension. On 12 Jan. 1668, with royal support, Wilkins and Hezekiah Burton (Bridgeman’s chaplain) met for negotiations with prominent nonconformists. The ensuing bill appalled Gilbert Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, who used his considerable parliamentary influence to secure its failure.5
In September when the death of George Hall, created a vacancy at Chester, Sheldon and Herbert Croft, of Hereford, lobbied in favour of William Sancroft, later archbishop of Canterbury, but were unable to prevail against the influence of Buckingham and Henry Bennet, earl of Arlington, who secured Wilkins’ elevation instead.6 Wilkins was consecrated on 15 Nov. 1668 at Ely House in Holborn. Sheldon did not take part; he and Humphrey Henchman, of London, signalled their displeasure by remaining behind the curtain for the entire ceremony.7
Early in 1669 Pepys described Wilkins as ‘a mighty rising man’ who could count on the support of Buckingham, ‘his great friend’. By the end of February 1669 it was rumoured that Wilkins was to be promoted, some thought to lord privy seal, others that he was to be translated to Winchester and become lord treasurer.8 Discussions on toleration and comprehension continued; Wilkins own commitment to toleration was evinced in his own diocese where he implemented a ‘soft interpretation’ of the terms of conformity. He encouraged nonconformists to live in hope of comprehension and licensed at least one Presbyterian preacher who failed to conform to the provisions of the Act of Uniformity.9 His conciliatory skills were also put to use at court where, in October, the king sought his help in smoothing relations between Buckingham and Arlington.10
The disruption caused to parliamentary life by the impasse over Skinner’s Case meant that Wilkins was prevented from taking his seat in the Lords until 19 Oct. 1669. He then embarked on a short but active career in the House as an isolated ecclesiastical spokesman for the Cabal. He attended his first session for over 80 per cent of the sittings, was named to four of the session’s five committees, including the subcommittee appointed to consider the report from the commissions of accounts, and held the proxy of former Presbyterian Edward Reynolds, of Norwich, from 15 Oct. 1669 until the prorogation in December.
On 14 Feb. 1670, Wilkins attended the start of a new session, was present for 79 per cent of sittings and was appointed to almost 50 select committees on a range of public and private bills. He again held Reynolds’ proxy for the entire session. Such a record of attendance and activity suggests that he was something of a parliamentary ‘workhorse’, yet Wilkins was increasingly marginalized from his colleagues on the episcopal bench. His emphasis on practical piety appealed to the king but not to more dogmatic theologians. John Hacket, of Lichfield and Coventry, dismissed Wilkins’ Lenten sermon before the king on the whole duty of man as ‘pitiful’; he suggested that it was ordered to be printed only because ‘the court likes no sermons longer than a quarter of an hour’. As far as he was concerned Wilkins was ‘a shallow man both in philosophy and divinity’. John Dolben, of Rochester, and John Fell, of Oxford, both disliked Wilkins ‘for his wavering … mind in religion’.11
On 5 Mar. 1670 the bill to enable John Manners, styled Lord Roos (later 9th earl and duke of Rutland) to remarry was introduced into the House. At the second reading on 17 Mar. in a debate that lasted from noon to 9 p.m., Wilkins and John Cosin, of Durham, were the only bishops to support it. During the various debates Wilkins declared that divorce was not only possible in cases of adultery but also of ‘immundicity of the womb’ – a reference to the queen so barbed ‘that she wept day and night’. Significantly when the bill was committed on 19 Mar. they were the only bishops to be named to the committee. Neither Cosin nor Wilkins was listed in the Journal as present on the day of the third reading (28 Mar. 1670), but Wilkins was presumably present as Edward Montagu, earl of Sandwich, recorded his contribution to the debate that day.12
At the same time as the Roos divorce was passing through Parliament there was an attempt to pass a fresh conventicles bill. On 19 Mar. 1670 Wilkins was present in the afternoon when the House went into committee to consider it. When the king tried to rally support for the bill Wilkins refused either to do so or to assist its passage by refraining from attendance. He insisted that the bill was ‘an ill thing both in conscience and policy’ and must be opposed, that he had a right to debate and vote ‘and was neither afraid nor ashamed to own his opinion ... and to act pursuant to it’.13 Wilkins not only attended the House throughout March but on 30 Mar. was appointed, with Humphrey Henchman and Seth Ward, to manage the conference on the Lords amendments that effectively softened the bill.
Parliament was adjourned until the autumn of 1670. In the recess Wilkins was one of the commissioners to negotiate union with the Scots.14 He resumed his seat at the start of business on 24 Oct. 1670, and attended regularly until the prorogation on 22 Apr. 1671. On 1 Mar. 1671, together with Henchman, Ward, Dolben and George Morley, of Winchester, he was named to a small committee to prepare heads for a conference on the growth of popery. On 13 Apr. a Lords’ committee appointed Wilkins to a subcommittee to prepare a test or oath for Catholics which would mitigate the penalties imposed on convicted recusants.15 With the session almost at an end the subcommittee seems never to have met. Parliament did not meet again until the following spring; Wilkins was present on 16 Apr. 1672 to hear of a further prorogation to the autumn, and again on 30 Oct. 1672 for a prorogation to the following year.
At the death of John Cosin in January 1672 Wilkins was rumoured to be one of the candidates to succeed him, but no decision was made before Wilkins’ death later that year.16 In October 1672 his health deteriorated to such an extent that he composed his will. Having received some £500 a year in episcopal revenue, Wilkins was able to bequeath over £1,800 at the time of his death.17 He made Tillotson his financial and literary executor. The ‘particular friends’ to whom he left small bequests were an eclectic group from across the political spectrum and included the lawyer, Sir William Jones‡, and three future bishops, William Lloyd, who ended his episcopal career as bishop of Worcester, Edward Stillingfleet, and Thomas Sprat. Wilkins died on 19 Nov. 1672. He was buried on 12 Dec. 1672 in the chancel of St. Laurence Jewry.
B.A.- 1 TNA, PROB 11/341.
- 2 Seventeenth Century Oxford, 310, 430, 549, 738.
- 3 Pepys Diary, vi. 34, 94-95; vii. 12, 20; ix. 382; Evelyn Diary, iii. 416; B.J. Shapiro, John Wilkins 1614-72, 180; J. Wilkins, Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions before the King at Whitehall, epistle dedicatory.
- 4 [D. Jenkins], Propositions for the Safety and Happiness of the King and Kingdom, (1667); T. Tomkins, Inconvenience of Toleration (1667); J. Corbet, Discourse of the Religion of England (1667); Thorndike, Theological Works, v. 302-4.
- 5 Reliquiae Baxterianae, iii. 24; S. Parker, Hist. of His Own Times, 36-40; Bodl. Tanner 45, f. 288.
- 6 Tanner 44, f. 37; Tanner 45, ff. 278, 288; Tanner 314, ff. 50, 71; Add. 36916, f. 115.
- 7 Tanner 314, f. 50.
- 8 Pepys Diary, ix. 485; Add. 36916, f. 127.
- 9 Calamy Revised, 99, 129; CSP Dom. 1675-6, p. 519.
- 10 TNA, PRO 31/3/123 pp. 30-31.
- 11 J. Wilkins, Sermon … Preached before the King … 27 Feb. 1669/70 (1670); Tanner 44, f. 196; Ath. Ox. iii. 967.
- 12 Harris, Sandwich, ii. 318, 3332; Durham UL, Cosin letter book 5a, 68; Ludlow Mems. ed. C.H. Firth, ii. 503.
- 13 Burnet, i. 473-4.
- 14 Durham UL, Cosin letter bk. 5a, 85; NLS, Yester Pprs. 14406, ff. 164-5.
- 15 PA, HL/PO/CO/1/2, f. 451.
- 16 Durham UL, Cosin letter bk. 5b, ff. 158-9, 165; Hatton Corresp. i. (Cam. Soc. n.s. xxii), 77-78.
- 17 Hirschberg, ‘Episcopal Incomes’, 214.