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JOHN WILKINS (1614-1672)

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 646 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:WILKINS (1614-1672)  , See also:bishop of See also:Chester, was See also:born at Fawsley, See also:Northamptonshire, and educated at Magdalen See also:Hall, See also:Oxford . He was ordained and became See also:vicar of Fawsley in 1637, but soon resigned and became See also:chaplain successively to See also:Lord Saye and Sele, Lord See also:Berkeley, and See also:Prince See also:Charles See also:Louis, See also:nephew of Charles I. and afterwards elector See also:palatine of the See also:Rhine . In 1648 he became See also:warden of Wadham See also:College, Oxford . Under him the college was extraordinarily prosperous, for, although a supporter of See also:Cromwell, he was in See also:touch with the most cultured royalists, who placed their sons in his See also:charge . In 1659 See also:Richard Cromwell appointed him See also:master of Trinity College, See also:Cambridge . At the Restoration in r66o he was deprived, but appointed See also:prebendary of See also:York and See also:rector of Cranford, See also:Middlesex . In 1661 he was preacher at See also:Gray's See also:Inn, and in 1662 vicar of St See also:Lawrence Jewry, See also:London . He became vicar of Polebrook, Northarnptonshire, in 1666, prebendary of See also:Exeter in 1667, and in the following See also:year prebendary of St See also:Paul's and bishop of Chester . Possessing strong scientific tastes, he was the See also:chief founder of the Royal Societyand its first secretary . He died in London on the Toth of See also:November 1672 . The chief of his numerous See also:works is an See also:Essay towards a Real See also:Character and a Philosophical See also:Language (London, 1668), in which he ex-pounds a new universal language for the use of philosophers . He is remembered also for a curious See also:work entitled The See also:Discovery of a See also:World in the See also:Moon (1638, 3rd ed., with an appendix " The possibility of a passage thither," 1640 .

Other works are A Discourse concerning a New See also:

Planet (164o) ; See also:Mercury, or the See also:Secret and See also:Swift Messenger (1641), a work of some ingenuity on the means of rapid See also:correspondence; and Mathematical Magick (1648) . See P . A . See also:Wright See also:Henderson, The See also:Life and Times of See also:John See also:Wilkins (1910), and also the See also:article See also:AERONAUTICS .

End of Article: JOHN WILKINS (1614-1672)
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MARY ELEANOR WILKINS (1862– )

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