John Wilkins

English mathematician and scientist (1614–1672)

Born at Fawsley in Northamptonshire, Wilkins was educated at Oxford University, graduating in 1631. He was a parliamentarian during the English Civil War and became warden of Wadham College, Oxford University. In 1659 he was appointed master of Trinity College, Cambridge University. After the Restoration he lost his post but regained favor to become bishop of Chester.

Wilkins's chief contribution to the development of science was his part in founding the Royal Society. His influence can be traced back to his student days at Oxford when he collected around him a lively group of philosophers and scientists who later became founder members of the society in 1662. His own writings covered a wide range of fields and although he had a certain amount of mathematical knowledge he was more a practical scientist. His Discovery of a World in the Moon (1638) is a fantasy in which he speculated about the structure of the Moon. A later semimathematical work, Mathematical Magick, deals with the principles of machine design and in it Wilkins argued that perpetual motion is a theoretical possibility. One nonscientific interest to which Wilkins devoted much time was his project of devising a universal language.

Wilkins, John (1614-72). One of the most prominent of the remarkable group of amateur scientists in the mid-17th cent. He attended Oxford and took holy orders, becoming chaplain to a number of noblemen. In his first book, Discovery of a World in the Moon (1638), he argued that man could reach the moon and that it could be made habitable. The ‘invisible college’ of scientists which he organized was the forerunner of the Royal Society, established in 1660 with Wilkins as secretary. Joining the parliamentary side in the Civil War, he was appointed warden of Wadham College, Oxford, in 1648 and in 1656 married a sister of Oliver Cromwell, retaining his college headship. In 1659 he transferred to the mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge, and though he lost it at the Restoration, he was made dean of Ripon in 1663 and bishop of Chester in 1668.

Wilkins, John (1614–1672), an important figure in the history of science, religion, literature, and linguistics. As his many publications suggest, Wilkins possessed a wide-ranging intellect. His contributions to natural philosophy include the popularization of science, development of English scientific organization, creation of a universal language, and demonstration of the compatibility of religion and science. The Discovery of a World in the Moone (1638) and A Discourse concerning a New World and Another Planet (1640) introduced lay readers to Copernicanism and the implications of Galileo's telescopic observations, but literary figures satirized his speculations about the possibility of lunar flight and lunar inhabitants. He also proposed solutions to possible conflicts with Scripture, which he suggested God had "accommodated" to the capacity of the common people. Natural knowledge was determined by "Sensible Experiments and Necessary Demonstration"; science was an independent body of knowledge verifiable by its own standards of investigation. Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641) explores the nature of codes and secret communications and proposes a "Universal Character" and language. Mathematical Magick, or the wonders that may be performed by mechanical geometry (1648) explains fundamental principles of mechanics and suggests both practical and fanciful devices utilizing these principles.

While warden of Wadham College, Oxford, Wilkins defended universities against the attacks of Thomas Hobbes and the radical sects, and insisted that the universities were hospitable to recent developments in natural philosophy. He recruited to Wadham a group of naturalists of differing religious and political persuasions to pursue a wide-ranging, cooperative, and experimental program that was the forerunner of the Royal Society, which he helped to found, serving as one of its secretaries and supervising the composition of Thomas Sprat's The History of the Royal Society (1667). His long-standing interest in language and linguistics culminated in An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language (1668), which describes a universal language he designed to facilitate scientific communication and trade and reduce religious misunderstanding.

Wilkins also made important contributions to religion and wrote frequently reprinted works on the organization and presentation of preaching and prayer. In A Discourse concerning the Beauty of Providence and All the Rugged Passages of It (1649) he advised acceptance of recent political changes. During the Restoration he became a key figure in the development of latitudinarian theology and natural religion and a staunch advocate of comprehension, a policy intended to broaden the established church. His adoption of an epistemology that emphasized the probabilistic nature of human knowledge led him to advocate tentativeness and moderation in both religion and natural philosophy, and he expounded these views from the pulpit of St. Laurence Jewry, London, as Dean of Ripon and as Bishop of Chester, and in his Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions before the King at White-Hall (1677) and Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion (1675), completed by his son-in-law, John Tillotson.

Wilkins's diverse interests made him a significant figure in the intellectual and cultural life of his time, and his contributions to Interregnum and Restoration natural philosophy and scientific organization remain important. Historians interested in the relationship between religion and science have investigated his religious views, variously identified as Puritan or latitudinarian, while literary scholars and linguists read his work in connection with the development of prose style and linguistics.

Bibliography

Cohen, I. Bernard. Puritanism and the Rise of Modern Science: The Merton Thesis. New Brunswick, N.J., 1990.

Moss, Joan Dietz. Novelties in the Heavens: Rhetoric and Science in the Copernican Controversy. Chicago, 1993.

Shapiro, Barbara J. John Wilkins 1614–1672: An Intellectual Biography. Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968.

——. Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-Century England: A Study of the Relationships between Natural Science, Religion, History, Law, and Literature. Princeton, 1983.

Slaughter, M. M. Universal Languages and Scientific Taxonomy in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge, U.K., 1982.

Subbiondo, Joseph L., ed. John Wilkins and 17th-Century British Linguistics. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1992.

—BARBARA SHAPIRO

John Wilkins
Born	January 01 1614(1614--) Fawsley, Northamptonshire
Died	November 19 1672 (aged 58) London
Occupation	Warden of Wadham College, Oxford Master of Trinity College, Cambridge Secretary of the Royal Society, Bishop of Chester
Spouse	Robina Cromwell

John Wilkins (1614-01-01 - 1672-11-19), an English clergyman, is the only person to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He married Oliver Cromwell's sister, Robina. He was the first secretary of the Royal Society from its first meeting in 1660. He served as Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.

Biography

Wilkins was born at Fawsley, Northamptonshire, and educated at Magdalen Hall (which later became Hertford College), Oxford. His father was a goldsmith, and his grandfather was a vicar, John Dodd. After ordination, Wilkins became vicar of his home town of Fawsley in 1637, but soon resigned and became chaplain successively to Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Berkeley, and Prince Charles Louis, nephew of King Charles I and afterwards elector palatine of the Rhine.

In 1641, Wilkins published an anonymous treatise entitled Mercury, or The Secret and Swift Messenger. This small but comprehensive work on cryptography proved a timely gift to the diplomats and leaders of the imminent English Civil War. In 1648, he became warden of Wadham College, Oxford. Under him the college prospered extraordinarily, for, although a supporter of Oliver Cromwell, he remained in touch with the most cultured Royalists, who placed their sons in his charge. In 1656, he married Robina Cromwell, sister of Oliver Cromwell. In 1659, shortly before his death, Oliver Cromwell arranged his appointment as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, an appointment that was confirmed by Cromwell's successor as Lord Protector, his son Richard Cromwell.

At the Restoration in 1660, the new authorities deprived Wilkins of the position given him by Cromwell; he gained appointment as prebendary of York and rector of Cranford, Middlesex. In 1661, he was reduced to preacher at Gray's Inn, lodging with his friend Seth Ward. In 1662, he became vicar of St Lawrence Jewry, London. He became vicar of Polebrook, Northamptonshire, in 1666, prebendary of Exeter in 1667, and in the following year prebendary of St Paul's and bishop of Chester.

Possessing strong scientific tastes, Wilkins was the chief founder of the Royal Society and its first secretary. In 1668 he published his Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, in which he attempted to create a universal language to replace Latin as a completely unambiguous tongue with which scholars and philosophers could communicate.

The Ballad of Gresham College (1663), an ode to the society, describes his efforts:

A Doctor counted very able

Designes that all Mankynd converse shall,

Spite o' th' confusion made att Babell,

By Character call'd Universall.

How long this character will be learning,

That truly passeth my discerning.^[1]

In 1668, Wilkins presented to the Royal Society his suggestions for rationalising the measurement system; this plan has been subsequently identified as the first statement of a metric system. ^[2] However, his plan was not taken up but, over a century afterwards, the French adopted a metric system which was, in many important ways, identical to that proposed by Wilkins.

Death and legacy

He died in London of complications arising from his kidney stones. The influence and ambitions of John Wilkins were an important thread in the historical fiction trilogy The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.

Works

His numerous written works include:

• The Discovery of a World in the Moone (1638)
• A Discourse Concerning a New Planet (1640)
• Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641), the first English-language book on cryptography
• Mathematical Magick (1648)
• An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (London, 1668), in which he proposes a new universal language for the use of natural philosophers.
• Of the Principle and Duties of Natural Religion (London, 1675).

References

1. ^ Stimson, Dorothy. "'Ballad of Gresham College'". Isis volume 18, number 1, 1932. pp. 103-117.
2. ^ Metric system 'was British' - from the BBC video news

See also

• Larsen, Poul Steen: "Et kapitel af Babelstaarnets historie - Biskop John Wilkins' universalsprog, 1668. In: 'Nordisk Tidsskrift för Bok- och Bibliotekshistoria" 2000. Nr.1.(2001). Pp. 50-63 (Danish)

External links

• M E R C V R Y: The secret and swift Messenger Scan of original book
• Cromwell's moonshot: how one Jacobean scientist tried to kick off the space race
• "The Jacobean Space Program" Printable transcript of Gresham College lecture on Wilkins' space efforts
• The Analytical Language of John Wilkins (in Spanish and English) by Jorge Luis Borges
• MacTutor: John Wilkins
• The Discovery of a World in the Moon
• Galileo Project: Wilkins
• a Wilkins biography
• John Aubrey's Brief Lives - including a Wilkins entry
• Works by John Wilkins at Project Gutenberg
• The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy and Spaceflight
• Bishop Wilkins College No.58: A Rosicrucian (SRIA) college named after Wilkins.

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John Wilkins

• The Master of Trinity at Trinity College, Cambridge

Honorary titles
Preceded by John Pitt	Warden of Wadham College, Oxford 1648–1659	Succeeded by Walter Blandford
Preceded by John Arrowsmith	Master of Trinity College, Cambridge 1659–1660	Succeeded by Henry Ferne
Preceded by first	Secretary of the Royal Society 1660–16??	Succeeded by
Religious titles
Preceded by George Hall	Bishop of Chester 1668–1672	Succeeded by John Pearson

Persondata
NAME	Wilkins, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Secretary of the Royal Society, Bishop of Chester
DATE OF BIRTH	1614-01-01
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fawsley, Northamptonshire, England
DATE OF DEATH	1672-11-19
PLACE OF DEATH	London, England

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