Author: Wills, James
Biography:
WILLS, James (1790-1868: DIB)
He was born on 1 Jan. 1790, the younger son of Thomas Wills (d 1811) of Willsgrove, County Roscommon, and his second wife, Miss Browne of Moyne, Roscommon. He was tutored at home and at Dr. Miller’s school in Blackrock, Dublin, before matriculating at Trinity College Dublin on 1 Nov. 1809 (BA 1822, MA 1839, BD 1855, DD 1856). At Trinity he was part of a circle that included John Anster and Charles Wolfe (qq.v.). He moved to London and entered the Middle Temple in 1821 but left for financial reasons when his elder brother squandered their inheritance from their mother. He lived in Dublin and Bray, County Wicklow, and wrote for various periodicals. On 29 Aug. 1822 at St. Peter’s, Dublin, he married Catherine Eliza Gorman, daughter of the Rev. William Gorman of Kilmore. He met Charles Robert Maturin (q.v.)—curate at St. Peter’s—and Wills’s The Universe was published by Henry Colburn as if by Maturin, an already established author. Possibly it was only after Maturin’s 1824 death that the truth became known; it is unlikely, however, that either Maturin or Wills earned £500 for the poem as is sometimes claimed. In 1826 Wills became curate at Knockmark, County Meath, but by 1827 he was living in Kilmurry, County Kilkenny where he worked as a bailiff. In 1841 he was curate at Poleroane and became vicar in 1846. In 1848-61 he was at Kilmacow, Kilkenny, and 1861-68 he was rector at Attanagh, Kilkenny. He was the Donnellan lecturer at Trinity College 1855-56 on the strength of his Lives of Illustrious Irishmen (1839-47). His other publications include Letters on the Philosophy of Unbelief (1835), Dramatic Sketches (1845), and Moral and Religious Epistles (1846); he also contributed extensively to Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine and the Dublin University Magazine. He died at home in Attanagh 28 Nov. 1868, survived by his wife, three sons, and a daughter. One son, the Rev. Freeman Croft Wills, edited his father’s works. On 27 Jan. 1869 Catherine Wills applied to the RLF stating that she was entitled to a widow’s annual pension of just £24 from the church; she was awarded £50. (DIB 22 Dec. 2021; ODNB 22 Dec. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 22 Dec. 2021; RLF file 1777; Saunders’s Newsletter 19 Oct. 1825; Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin [1869]) SR