Admitted 25 November, 1664.
Second son of Joseph Williamson of Bridekirk, Cumberland, where he was baptized 4 Aug. 1633, his father being the Vicar of the parish. He was educated at St. Bees, Westminster, and Oxford, where he graduated B.A.
2 Feb. 1653-4, and was elected a Fellow of Queen's College in 1657. At the Restoration he entered political life and became one of the Clerks of the Council and Keeper of the Royal Library at Whitehall. His call to the Bar appears to have been on the same day as his admission, "25 Nov. 1664," a rare privilege. He was knighted in Jan. 1671-2, and in 1673 was a joint plenipotentiary at the Congress of Cologne, and on his return the following year became Principal Secretary of State. Four years later, however, he was sent to the Tower on a charge of granting commissions to Popish recusants, but was released by order of the king the same day. During the time of his office he was one of the busiest men of the day, being mixed up with nearly all the political and social transactions of the time. Amongst other things he may be considered as the founder of the London Gazette, the first issue of which appeared 5 Feb. 1666 under his management. He took a great interest in the Royal Society, of which he was one of the first members. The only legal appointment he held was that of Recorder of Thetford. He died 3 Oct. 1701.
Admitted 14 November, 1814.
Second son of Thomas Wills of Willsgrove, co. Roscommon. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he had as fellow students Charles Wolfe, John Sydney Taylor (q.v.), John Auster and Samuel O'Sullivan. Loss of means obliged him to discontinue his course at the Middle Temple, and to take up literature, and subsequently to take Holy Orders. In 1846 he became Vicar of Suirville, and afterwards of Attanagh, co. Kilkenny. He contributed to Blackwood and other magazines, and was the founder of the Irish Quarterly Review. In 1835 he published The Philosophy of Unbelief, and in 1847 completed the Lives of Distinguished Irishmen, with a valuable historical introduction, afterwards published as The Irish Nation. He was the author also of several Poems, including The Universe, long attributed to his friend and countryman Charles Robert Maturin. He died at Attanagh in 1868.
WILMINGTON, EARL OF. See COMPTON, SPENCER.
Admitted 14 March, 1736-7.
On the Register he is described as "the Revd. Bernard Wilson of Newark, CO. Nottingham." He was the son of Barnard Wilson, mercer, of Newark -onTrent. He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge, where he graduated in 1712, and received the degree of D.D. in 1737. By the patronage of powerful friends he procured preferment, and in 1719 became Vicar of Newark, in 1730 obtained a Canonry at Lichfield, and four years later another at Worcester. He acquired a large private fortune. He died at Newark 30 April, 1772. His chief title to fame is his restoring to Newark the local charities of the place of which he wrote an account. He also published an English version of part of De Thou's Historia Sui Temporis.
