LINNEAN SOCEETT OF LONDON. Ixv 



The Eev. William Hincks was the second son of the Eev. Thomas 

 Dix Hincks, LL.D., so well known for his varied scholarship and 

 the important part which he played in connexion with educational 

 movements in Ireland. The family was a large one. Dr. Edward 

 Hincks, the Assyrian scholar, was the eldest brother ; and Sir Francis 

 Hincks, the present Canadian Minister of finance, the youngest. 

 "William Hincks was bom in 1793, at Cork, where his father was 

 then settled as one of the ministers of the Presbyterian Congregation 

 assembling in the Prince's-Street Chapel. He received his early 

 education in his father's school, and at the age of sixteen proceeded 

 to the College at York, which he entered in 1809. At the close of 

 his college course, in 1814, he returned to Cork ; and on his father's 

 removal, about that time, to Fermoy, he was elected as his successor 

 by the Prince's-Street congregation. In 1816 he left Cork and 

 settled in Exeter, as successor to Dr. Carpenter and colleague to 

 the Rev. James Manning. In the following year he married Miss 

 Maria Ann Yandell, by whom he had eight children, four of whom 

 survive him. In 1822 he removed to Liverpool, to take charge of 

 the Henshaw-Street congregation. The period of his residence in 

 this town was probably the brightest portion of his ministerial Hfe. 

 Surrounded by kind and congenial fi'iends, with ample scope for 

 his untiring activity, with great social advantages and many oppor- 

 tunities of gratifying his scientific tastes, he found in Liverpool much 

 of what he most desired, and always regretted having left it. In 

 1827 he yielded reluctantly to the persuasions of some of the friends 

 of the College, and undertook the tutorship in mathematics and 

 philosophy and the management of the residence at York, as suc- 

 cessor to the Rev. "William Turner, jun. In many ways his new 

 position was less congenial to him than the one which he had left. 

 He was peculiarly sensitive to the annoyances inseparable from the 

 office which he held, and though profoundly interested in mental 

 and moral philosophy, it can hardly be said that the mathematical 

 portion of his duties was in harmony with his prevailing tastes ; 

 but he threw himself into his new duties with the energy and in- 

 difference to labour that were characteristic of all he did. During 

 his residence in York (as, indeed, throughout his life) Mr. Hincks 

 devoted himself with the greatest enthusiasm to natural-history 

 pursuits. He was an accomplished botanist, and possessed a wide 

 range of scientific knowledge. A keen collector, and finding some 

 of his highest enjoyments in the field-work of the naturalist, he 

 was also a philosophical student of his favourite science and kept 



