Wilson, Bernard

, an English divine and writer, was born in 1689, and became a member of Trinity-college, Oxford, where he took his degree of B. A. in 1712, and that of A. M. in 1719. In the following year he was pre^ bendary of Lowtb, and afterwards of Scamblesbey in the church of Lincoln in 1727, about which time he was also | vicar of Newark in Nottinghamshire, master of the hospital there, and an alderman. He is thought to have owed his preferments chiefly to bishop Reynolds of Lincoln. From the crown he had a prebend of Worcester, and another of Carborough in LichnVld, where he had a house given him by bishop Chandler. In July 1735, he was presented to Bottesford in Leicestershire, but never took possession of it. In 1737 he took his degree of D. D. He died April 30, 1772, aged eighty-three, and was interred in the church of Newark with an inscription, extolling his extensive benevolence, by his nephew Robert Wilson Cracroft, esq.

Although a man of learning and address, of a very charitable disposition, and enjoying distinguished patronage, he seems frequently to have been involved in disputes which cast some shade on his character. At one time he received a great accession of property, by the will of sir George Markham, but was obliged to publish a defence of himself, in a quarto pamphlet, against the insinuations of sir George’s relations. In 1747 he was prosecuted for breach of promise of marriage by a Miss Davids of Castleyard, Holborn, and the case appeared to the jury in such a light, that they gave 7000l. damages, yet we see that be was at this time fifty-eight years of age. Some pamphlets were also published concerning his disputes with the parish of Newark, to which he left ample benefactions, but these were lost to the poor by the Mortmain act. He translated some parts of Fleury, but his greatest undertaking was a translation of Thuanus, of which he published vol.1, in 1729, and vol. II. in 1730. It is perhaps to be regretted that want of encouragement obliged him to resist, for these are two elegantly printed folios, and the completion would have done credit to the age. ¹