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Author: Wakefield, Gilbert

Biography:

WAKEFIELD, Gilbert (1756-1801: ODNB)

Born 22 Feb. 1756 in the rectory, Castle Gate, Nottingham, Wakefield was a son of the Rev. George Wakefield (1720-1776) and his wife, Elizabeth Bark (d 1800), the daughter of a prominent Nottingham family. Educated at schools in Nottingham, Richmond, and Kingston, he matriculated as a Marsden scholar in Apr. 1772 at Jesus College, Cambridge (BA, second wrangler 1776; fellow 1776-79). Ordained deacon in 1778, he acted briefly as a curate in churches at Stockport and Liverpool. At Stockport on 23 Mar. 1779, he married Anne Watson (1761-1819), a daughter of Joseph Watson (c. 1726- c. 1764) and his wife Anne Clayton (b 1740). He was at the time curate to his wife’s uncle, the Rev. John Watson, FSA (1725-1783). Together, he and Anne had five sons and two daughters. Growing doubts about Trinitarian Christianity caused him to withdraw from the Church, and in 1779 he became classical tutor at Warrington Academy. In Oct. 1784, he opened his own academy at Nottingham. In 1790 he taught at the New College, Hackney, with Unitarians Thomas Belsham and Joseph Priestly. A tireless advocate of abolition, Unitarianism, and other liberal causes, he was a “fierce advocate for free inquiry … [a] formidable … enemy to creeds, catechisms, and articles … terrible in his wrath” (Scots Magazine, 1782, 40). He and his publisher, Joseph Johnson, were prosecuted for a pamphlet he addressed to the Bishop of Llandaff in which he attacked Pitt’s war policy. Found guilty of seditious libel, he was imprisoned for two years in Dorchester jail. Released on 29 May 1801, he died of typhus on 9 Sep. at his residence in Mare Street, Hackney. In his will, written while he was in prison, he called himself “a prisoner … for the Testimony of Christianity and Truth against a corrupt and murderous Ministry.” The will concludes with quotations from Revelation 22:12, 20 “‘I come quickly and my reward is with thee.’ Even so come Lord Jesus.” (ODNB 23 Apr. 2023; CCEd 23 Apr. 2023; ancestry.com 23 Apr. 2023; G. Wakefield, Memoirs [1792]; Transactions of the Thoroton Society, 1899 [1900], 4: 37-38.) JC

 

 

 

Books written (2):