Background
He was born about 1781, the illegitimate son of John Walter, the newspaper publisher. He was living in Camden Town in 1808. His father died in 1812, leaving him a shareholder in The Times.
He was born about 1781, the illegitimate son of John Walter, the newspaper publisher. He was living in Camden Town in 1808. His father died in 1812, leaving him a shareholder in The Times.
In 1802 he went into journalism, and in 1806 he became a bookseller. He took the bookshop at the Mewsgate, Charing Cross, vacated by Thomas Payne the younger. He entered the Inner Temple, but never practised at the Barometer
He moved to Dorset, and again to Burnet, near Bath, Somerset, where he did some farming.
Here he had a congenial neighbour in Joseph Hunter. They exchanged copies of collections of dissenting antiquities.
About 1834 he moved from Burnet to Pulteney Street, Bath. During the progress of the Sarah Hewley suit, Wilson"s judgment went entirely with the defendants, and his religious views, probably under Hunter"s influence, underwent a change in the Unitarian direction.
Wilson died on 21 February 1847.
At the time of his death he was one of the eight registered proprietors of The Times. His library was sold (5–17 July 1847) and broken up. He bequeathed his manuscript collections for the history of dissent to Doctor Williams"s Library.
A list of these, by the then librarian, Richard Cogan, was printed in the Christian Reformer (1847, p 758).