Wilkins, John 1614-72
English churchman and scientist

Born near Daventry, Northamptonshire, he was a graduate of Magdalen Hall, Oxford. He became a domestic chaplain but studied mathematics and mechanics, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. In the Civil War he sided with parliament, and was appointed Warden of Wadham. Although appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1659, he was dispossessed at the Restoration. He soon recovered court favour, however, and became a preacher at Gray's Inn, rector of St Lawrence Jewry, dean of Ripon and Bishop of Chester (1668). Amongst his works are Discovery of a World in the Moon (1628), in which Wilkins discusses the possibility of communication by a flying-machine with the moon and its supposed inhabitants, Discourse concerning a New Planet (1640), which argues that the earth is one of the planets, and Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger, which shows how a man may communicate with a friend at any distance.