Chapter Willis to Wilson of W by Biographical Dictionary of English Literature

Willis to Wilson

Willis, Browne (1682-1760).—Antiquary, educated at Westminster and Oxford, entered the Inner Temple 1700, sat in the House of Commons 1705-8. He wrote History of the Counties, Cities, and Boroughs of England and Wales (1715), Notitia Parliamentaria, etc.

Willis, Nathaniel Parker (1806-1867).—Poet, born at Portland, and educated at Yale, was mainly a journalist, and conducted various magazines, including the American Monthly; but he also wrote short poems, many of which were popular, of which perhaps the best is “Unseen Spirits,” stories, and works of a more or less fugitive character, with such titles as Pencillings by the Way (1835), Inklings of Adventure, Letters from under a Bridge (1839), People I have Met, The Rag-Tag, The Slingsby Papers, etc., some of which were originally contributed to his magazines. He travelled a good deal in Europe, and was attached for a time to the American Embassy in Paris. He was a favourite in society, and enjoyed a wide popularity in uncritical circles, but is now distinctly a spent force.

Wills, James (1790-1868).—Poet and miscellaneous writer, younger son of a Roscommon squire, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and studied law in the Middle Temple. Deprived, however, of the fortune destined for him and the means of pursuing a legal career by the extravagance of his elder brother, he entered the Church, and also wrote largely in Blackwood’s Magazine and other periodicals. In 1831 he published The Disembodied and other Poems; The Philosophy of Unbelief (1835) attracted much attention. His largest work was Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen, and his latest publication The Idolatress (1868). In all his writings Wills gave evidence of a powerful personality. His poems are spirited, and in some cases show considerable dramatic qualities.

Wills, William Gorman (1828-1891).—Dramatist, son of above, born in Dublin. After writing a novel, Old Times, in an Irish magazine, he went to London, and for some time wrote for periodicals without any very marked success. He found his true vein in the drama, and produced over 30 plays, many of which, including Medea in Corinth, Eugene Aram, Jane Shore, Buckingham, and Olivia, had great success. Besides these he wrote a poem, Melchior, in blank verse, and many songs. He was also an accomplished artist.

Wilson, Alexander (1766-1813).—Poet and ornithologist, born at Paisley, where he worked as a weaver, afterwards becoming a pedlar. He published some poems, of which the best is Watty and Maggie, and in 1794 went to America, where he worked as a pedlar and teacher. His skill in depicting birds led to his becoming an enthusiastic ornithologist, and he induced the publisher of Rees’s Cyclopædia, on which he had been employed, to undertake an American ornithology to be written and illustrated by him. Some vols. of the work were completed when, worn out by the labour and exposure entailed by his journeys in search of specimens, he succumbed to a fever. Two additional vols. appeared posthumously. The work, both from a literary and artistic point of view, is of high merit. He also published in America another poem, The Foresters.

Wilson, Sir Daniel (1816-1892).—Archæologist and miscellaneous writer, born and educated in Edinburgh, and after acting as secretrayof the Society of Antiquaries there, went to Toronto as Professor of History and English Literature. He was the author of Memorials of Edinburgh in the Olden Time, The Archæology and Pre-historic Annals of Scotland (1851), Civilisation in the Old and the New World, a study on “Chatterton,” and Caliban, the Missing Link, etc.

Wilson, John (“Christopher North”) (1785-1854).—Poet, essayist, and miscellaneous writer, son of a wealthy manufacturer in Paisley, where he was born, was educated at Glasgow and Oxford At the latter he not only displayed great intellectual endowments, but distinguished himself as an athlete. Having succeeded to a fortune of £50,000 he purchased the small estate of Elleray in the Lake District, where he enjoyed the friendship of Wordsworth, Southey, Coleridge, and De Quincey. In 1812 he published The Isle of Palms, followed four years later by The City of the Plague, which gained for him a recognised place in literature, though they did not show his most characteristic gifts, and are now almost unread. About this time he lost a large portion of his fortune, had to give up continuous residence at Elleray, came to Edinburgh, and was called to the Scottish Bar, but never practised. The starting of Blackwood’s