471 



WAKKFIELD, IlEV. GILBERT. 



WAKEFIELD, REV. GILBERT. 



472 



Leinster. Captain Wakefield and some others were murdered by a 

 party of hostile natives June 17, 1843. Edward Jerniogham Wake- 

 field returned to England in 1844, and in 1845 published 'Adventure 

 in New Zealand from 1839 to 1844, with an Account of the Begin- 

 ning of the Colonisation of the Islands,' 2 vole. 8vo, an interesting and 

 apparently a trustworthy narrative. 



Edward Gibbon Wakefield did not take any active part in the 

 carrying out of his own system. Indeed in 1839, when the New 

 Zealand colonisation was taking place, he accompanied the Earl of 

 Durham to Canada as his private secretary, and his advice is under- 

 Btood to havo bad great weight in the measures there adopted. In 

 addition to the works above mentioned he published in 1831 'Facts 

 on the Punishment of Death in the Metropolis,' 8vo, and commenced 

 in 1835 an edition of Smith's ' Wealth of Nations,' which was however 

 left incomplete. Mr. E. G. Wakefield has latterly resided in France. 



WAKEFIELD, REV. GILBERT, was born the 22nd of February 

 1756, in the parsonage-house of St. Nicolas of Nottingham, and was 

 the third son of the Rev. George Wakefield, then rector of that parish. 

 After having been taught to read at home, Gilbert was sent, in May 

 1759, to a school kept by an old lady at Nottingham ; in his fifth 

 year he was put to a writing-school ; from that he went at the age of 

 seven to the Nottingham free grammar-school ; which two years after 

 he exchanged for that of Wilford, in the neighbourhood of his native 

 town. In 1767, on his father's removal to Kingston, or rather to 

 Richmond, where he took up his residence, that chapelry being 

 annexed to the vicarage, he was put to a school kept by his father's 

 curate, under whom he began the study of Greek ; from thia teacher, 

 whom he describes as miserably incompetent, he was transferred 

 two years after to the charge of the Rev. Richard Wooddeson, at 

 Kingston, with whom he remained till that gentleman gave up his 

 school and removed to Chelsea in 1772 ; when Wakefield, now in his 

 seventeenth year, was sent to Jesus College, Cambridge. 



Here he applied himself almost exclusively to classical studies. In 

 the third year of his residence he wrote for Dr. Brown's three medals ; 

 and although he admits that his Greek Ode and his two epigrams (one 

 Greek, the other Latin) were worthless, he maintains that his Horatian 

 Latin ode, which also failed, deserved a better fate. In 1775 he com- 

 menced the study of Hebrew ; having accidentally discovered what he 

 calls " the abominable stupidity a stupidity which no words can 

 sufficiently stigmatise of learning that language with the points," 

 and obtained a Masclef's Grammar, which enabled him, he says, in the 

 course of ten days, by the help only of Buxtorf s ' Lexicon,' to read 

 nine or ten of the first chapters in Genesis, " without much difficulty 

 and with infinite delight." 



In January 1776 he took his Bachelor's degree, and in April following 

 he was elected to a fellowship in his college. In the same year appeared 

 his iirst publication, a small 4to volume of Latin poems, ' Poemata 

 Latiue partim scripta, partim reddita,' which was printed at the Univer- 

 sity press. In March 1778, Wakefield was ordained deacon by Dr. 

 Hiuchcliffe, bishop of Peterborough. He had been from his earliest year?, 

 as he continued to the end of his life, strongly attached to the study of 

 theology; but his opinions had already begun to take that deviation 

 from the common standard which ultimately carried him out of the 

 pale of the church in which he had been born and educated. About 

 three weeks after his ordination he left the University for the curacy 

 of Stock port in Cheshire, of which the Rev. John Watson was incum- 

 bent; but he remained in this situation only for a few months, 

 quitting it before the end of the year for the curacy of St. Peter's at 

 Liverpool, " principally," he states, "with the view of establishing a 

 day-school in that town, if a suitable opportunity should present 

 itself." In March 1779, he married Miss Watson, the niece of his late 

 rector. " While I continued at Liverpool," he says, " I persevered in 

 reading the New and Old Testaments with all possible attention and 

 assiduity. My objections to the creed of my forefathers were daily 

 multiplying, and my determination was already made to quit the 

 church for some other line of life on the first opportunity. My 

 attachment however to theology would never suffer me to think with 

 tranquillity of transferring myself to any other profession inde- 

 pendently of additional objections of a very serious nature to such an 

 alteration in my plan of life." 



In August 1779j on the invitation of the trustees of the Dissenting 

 Academy at Warrington, he removed thither to fill the situation of 

 classical master in that establishment. While here, he published, in 

 1781, his first theological work, 'A New Translation of the First 

 Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians,' 8vo. Thia was fol- 

 lowed in the same year by ' A Plain and Short Account of the Nature 

 of Baptism,' 12mo; and an 'Essay on Inspiration,' Svo. All three 

 publications were brought out at the Warrington press, as was also 

 ' A New Translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew,' 4to, which he pro- 

 duced in the following year. For the first six years after his leaving 

 college, he intimates, the Greek and Roman writers received a very 

 small portion of his attention ; but while at Warrington he prosecuted 

 the study of Hebrew, learned Syriac and Chaldee, acquired, he says, a 

 perfect knowledge of the Samaritan and Syro-Chaldaic, formed some 

 acquaintance with the ^Ethiopic, Arabic, and Persian, and read the 

 Coptic version of the New Testament. He remained at Warrington 

 till the Academy was broken up in 1783, after it had existed twenty- 

 six ye;ir*. On tliis he retired in the firat instance to the village of 



Bramcoate in Nottinghamshire, with the intention of taking pupils 

 into his house; but he did not succeed in procuring any. While here 

 he published anonymously, at London, a small tract in 12mo, entitled 

 ' Directions for the Student in Theology,' and also the first volume, in 

 Svo, of his 'Enquiry into the Opinions of the Christian Writers of the 

 Three First Centuries concerning the Person of Jesus Christ,' a work 

 which he never carried farther. In May 1784, he removed to his 

 brother's parish of Richmond in Surrey, and advertised for pupils 

 there, but was as unsuccessful as at Bramcoate ; and at Michaelmas in 

 the same year he took up his residence in his native town of Notting- 

 ham. Up to this time he had continued to preach occasionally ; a 

 sermon which he preached at Richmond on the 29th of July 1784, the 

 thanksgiving-day on account of the peace, was soon after printed ; and 

 he also appeared two or three times in the Nottingham pulpits in 1785 

 and 1786. But from that last date he became not only wholly alienated 

 from the established church, but its open and bitter assailant, although 

 he never joined any body of dissenters. Indeed he came at last to 

 the conclusion that public worship in any form was wrong. 



He got some pupils at Nottingham, and remained there for six 

 years. During this period his publications were an edition of ' The 

 Poems of Mr. Gray, with Notes,' Svo, Lond., 1786; an edition of 

 Virgil's ' Georgics,' Svo, 1788, from the Cambridge University press; 

 'Remarks on Dr. Horsley's Ordiuation Sermon,' Loud., 12mo, 1788; 

 ' Four Marks of Antichrist,' Lond., Svo, 1788 ; ' A New Translation of 

 those parts of the New Testament which are wrongly translated in 

 our Common Version,' Lond., Svo, 1789; 'An Address to the In- 

 habitants of Nottingham' (on the Test Laws), Lend., Svo, 1789; 

 'Remarks on the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion,' Lond., 

 Svo, 1789; 'Silva Critics, siveinAuctoresSacrosProfanosqueCouimenta- 

 rius Philologus, Pars pritua,' 8vo, 1789, from the Cambridge University 

 press ; ' An Address to Dr. Horsley, Bishop of St. David's, on the 

 Liturgy of the Church of England,' Birmingham, Svo, 1790; 'Silva 

 Critica, Pars secunda,' Cambridge, Svo, 1790; and 'Cursory Reflec- 

 tions on the Corporation and Test Acts,' Birmingham, Svo, 1790. He 

 always wrote with extraordinary rapidity, and certainly often with 

 very little consideration, and he generally rushed to the press with 

 his manuscript before the ink was dry. He was however in his way a 

 hard student, methodical, punctual, and a great economist of his time. 

 In this way he found leisure for a good deal of society, and also for 

 some rather singular indulgences. " During my abode at Nottingham," 

 he relates, " I never failed to attend all the capital punishments that 

 took place there ; courting at all times every circumstance which 

 might read me a wholesome lecture on mortality, or suggest an 

 additional motive of gratitude to God for the comforts of my own 

 condition." 



In July 1790 however he was induced to leave this and the other 

 attractions of Nottingham by an invitation to become classical tutor in 

 the dissenting academy at Hackney. But this situation he only held 

 till June 1791. A quarrel with his colleagues finally induced him 

 to give iu hia resignation, after some minor causes had contributed to 

 make him dissatisfied with his position. 



Towards the end of the year 1791 he published at London one of 

 his most considerable works, his ' Translation of the New Testament, 

 with Notes,' in 3 vols. Svo. This performance, in which he had 

 the good taste to adhere to the words of the existing translation 

 wherever he thought they conveyed the correct sense, was not 

 unfavourably received, and he produced a second edition of it, in 2 

 vols., in 1795. Its first publication was immediately followed by 'An 

 Enquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Public or Social 

 Worship,' Svo, London, 179], a tract which made some noise, was 

 twice reprinted in this and the next year, and drew forth several 

 answers, to which he replied in two additional expositions of his views 

 published in 1792. In 1792 also appeared a third part of his ' Silva 

 Critica,' printed, like the two former parts, at the Cambridge Uni- 

 versity press. And in the same year he published, in 1 vol. Svo, his 

 'Memoirs' of his own life, which he says that he wrote "all to a little 

 polish," in twelve days. The work certainly has the appearance of 

 having been rapidly composed. 



For the next six years his biography is merely the history of the 

 appearance of his successive publications : for, continuing to reside at 

 Hackney, he now sought no other employment than writing for the 

 booksellers. In 1793 he brought out a fourth part of his 'Silva 

 Critica,' at London, at his own expense, the curators refusing him the 

 further use of the Cambridge press. The same year he published, in 

 Svo, a treatise on the ' Evidences of Christianity,' being an enlarged 

 edition of the tract on the same subject he had published in 1789. 

 He now turned for the first time to politics, or to theologico-political 

 discussion, and in 1794 published three pamphlets : ' The Spirit of 

 Christianity compared with the Spirit of the Times in Great Britain,' 

 which went through three editions ; an answer to Paine, under the 

 title of ' An Examination of the Age of Reason,' of which a second 

 edition was called for the same year; and a vehement philippic 

 against the war with France, in the form of ' Remarks on the General 

 Orders of the Duke of York to his Army.' Then, striking into another 

 new path, he produced his first complete edition of an ancient classic 

 a Horace, with notes, and what ho called an amended text in 2 vols. 

 12mo, London, 1794. It is renowned for a proposed conversion of 

 ' beate Sexti,' in the 4th ode of the 1st book, into ' bea te, Sexti,' 



