, brother of the rector of Waddesdon, first-mentioned, and uncle to the
, brother of the rector of Waddesdon, first-mentioned, and uncle to the two Henrys, was
born in Halifax, and educated at Oxford, where he was
very celebrated. He became fellow of Magdalen college,
and in 1605, when Henry, prince of Wales, was
matriculated of Magdalen college, Mr. Wilkinson, then B. D. was
appointed his tutor, as high a mark of respect as could well
be paid, and a striking proof of the respect in which he
was then held. In the same year Mr. Wilkinson was made
principal of Magdalen-hall; and Wood says, that under his
government, in 1624, and before, there were three hundred students in the hall, of which number were forty or
more masters of arts, but, Wood adds, “all mostly inclining to Calvinism.
” On the commencement of the rebellion, being of the same sentiments as his relations beforementioned, he left Oxford in 1643, and joined the parliamentary party. After the surrender of the city of Oxforo!
to the parliamentary forces in 1646, he returned to Magdalen-hall, and resumed his office as principal until 1648,
when he resigned it on being advanced to be president of
Magdalen-college. He had the year before been appointed one of the visitors of the university. He did not,
however, live long to enjoy any of these honours, for he
died Jan. 2, 1649, and was interred in the church of Great
Milton in Oxfordshire. It does not appear that Dr. John
Wilkinson published any thing; the greater part of his life
he spent as the governor of the two societies of Magdalenhall and Magdalen-college. Notwithstanding his reputation in his early years, Wood gives him the character of
being “generally accounted an illiterate, testy, old creature, one that for forty years together had been the sport
of the boys, and constantly yoked with Dr. Kettle: a person of more beard than learning, &c.
” It is unnecessary to
copy more of this character, which agrees so ill with what
Wood says of him in his account of Magdalen-hall, that
we are almost inclined to think he is speaking of another
person. There is much confusion in some of the accounts
given of these Wilkinsons, and we are not quite sure that
we have been enabled to dispell it; but Wood so expressly
mentions a John Wilkinson Magdalen-hall, as one of the
visitors of Oxford, and afterwards a physician, that we
suspect he has mixed the characters of the two. On this
account the story of Dr. John Wilkinson having robbed the
college of some money, which is related by Fuller and
Heylin, must remain doubtful, for Wood attributes it to
Henry Wilkinson, the vice-president.