WILSON, JOHN: The name of two divines. 1. Puritan; b. at Windsor (21 m. w. by s. of London), Berkshire, 1588; d. in Boston, Mass., Aug. 7, 1667. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, graduating from the university about 1606, after which he not only studied law for three years, but also took orders in the Church of England. He preached at Mortlake, Henley, Bumstead, Stoke,

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Wilson Clare, anaud Candish, and was for several years rec tor of Sudbury, Sussex. He was, however, a Puri tan rather than a churchman, and on Apr. 8, 1630, he sailed span for Massachusetts with John Winthrop (q.v.). Landing at Salem, he soon removed to Charlestown, where within a few months he organ ized what was to become the First Church in Boston. He was ordained its teacher by his own communi cants, but in 1631-32 he was in England, where he was ordained pastor. He was again in England in 1634-35, and soon after he had returned to America the Antinomian Controversy (see Antinomianism and Antinomian Controversies, II., 2) invaded his congregation. With Winthrop Wilson became one of the principal opponents of the movement and of its leader, Anne Hutchinson; but before it was settled Wilson was appointed chaplain to the expedition against the Pequots. Later he was a companion of John Eliot (q.v.) in his labors for the conversion of the Indians. His two colleagues, both of whom he outlived, were John Cotton and John Norton (qq.v.). The principal writings of Wilson were Some Helps to Faith (London, 1625); A Song of Deliverance for the Lasting Remembrance of God's Wonderful Works (1·526; new ed., Boston, 1680); The Day Breaking, if snot the Sun Rising, of the Gospel with the Indians in New England (1647; new ed., New York, 1865); and A Seasonable Watch-Word unto Christians against the Dreams and Dreamers of this Generation (Cam bridge, Mass., 1677; the last sermon of Wilson, preached Nov. 16, 1665).

Bibliography: W. B. Sprague Annals of the American Pulpit, i. 12-15, New York, 1859; A. W. MacClure, Lives of the Chief Fathers of New England, ii., Boston, 1870. 2. Presbyterian missionary to India and edu cator; b. at Lauder (18 m. a.e. of Edinburgh) Dec. 11, 1804; d. at Bombay, India,. Dec. 1, 1875. From early childhood he knew what per sonal religion was. During his college course at the University of Edinburgh, through tutoring some Anglo-Indian boys his mind was turned toward India. He was a diligent student of natural science as well as of languages, and besides taking his theo logical course he further qualified himself before going out by attending medical classes. He sailed in the-service of the Scottish Missionary Society, but shortly afterward the Church of Scotland awoke to missionary enterprise and tools over the society's work. Wilson became head of the mission college in Bombay, and in that city, where he is still re membered as perhaps the greatest of her citizens, he spent his long, laborious, and influential life. He rapidly acquired a wide and profound acquaint ance with Indian languages and literature, knowl edge which he turned to use in multifarious contro versial writings and public disputations in the cause of Christianity and in research into the ob scure field of Indian antiquities. While on cordial terms with Dr. Duff, he laid greater stress on work among the common people, on their own ground, in the vernacular. His first wife, who went out with him, did much in her brief six years for the cause of female education. In 1843, like all the Church of Scotland missionaries, he adhered to Free Church. He visited the Holy Land, pub

ing in 1845 Lands of the Bible, and stirring up interest in Syrian missions. In 1846, on a visit home, he married again, and for the next twenty years his wife evinced unusual interest and attained great success in mission work among Indian women of all ranks. He himself became vice-chancellor of Bombay University, a position of vast educational importance, and president of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. His relations with the governor, Sir William Elphinstone, were close and intimate. In 1870 he was called to the moderator's chair of the Free Church General Assembly, taking his place among the leaders on the progressive side and afterward returning to end his days in Bombay.

Bibliography: Wilson was the author of An Exposure of the Hindu Religion, and A Second Exposure (Bombay, 1832-34); Memoirs of Mrs. Wilson (Edinburgh, 1838); Lands of the Bible Visited arid Described (2 vols., 1847); Historic of the Suppression of Infanticide in Western India (Bombay, 1855); India Three Thousand Years Ago (1858); and Indian Caste, ed. P. Peterson (2 vols., 1877). For his life consult: G. Smith, Life of John Wilson, London, 1873; R. Hunter, Hist. of Free Church Missions in India and Africa, ib. 1873; G. Smith, Life of Alexander Duff, ib. 1881; J. Marrat, Two Standard Bearers in the East, ib. 1882; DNB, 1sii. 113-115.