The Right Reverend John Wilkins, F. R. S

In the history of the Royal Society there have been certain instances of hereditary genius, but there can be few Fellows in whom the influence of both parental strains is seen so clearly as in John Wilkins. He was the son of Walter Wilkins, an Oxford citizen and goldsmith, of whom Aubrey says: ‘Mr Francis Potter knew him very well, and was wont to say was a very ingeniose man, and had a very Mechanicall head. He was much for Trying of Experiments, and his head ran much upon the perpetuall motion.’ (1) ‘He was born in 1614 at Fawsley, near Daventry, in Northamptonshire, in the House of the Reverend and well known Mr John Dodd, who writes upon the Commandments, he being his Grandfather by the Mother’s side. He was taught his Latin and Greek by Edward Sylvester, a noted Grecian, who kept a Private School in the Parish of All Saints in Oxford: His Proficiency was such, that at Thirteen Years of Age he entred a Student in New-Inn, in Easter-Term 1627. He made no long stay there, but was removed to Magdalen Hall, under the Tuition of Mr John Tombes and there he took his Degree in Arts in October 1631

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