Man. He retained the rectory of Holwell in commendam until 1767, when he was presented by Bishop Trevor to the mastership of Christ's Hospital at Sherburn, near Durham.
Hildesley devoted all his energies to providing his Manx flock with a complete version of the Holy Scriptures in their native tongue. On 28 Nov. 1772 he received the last portion of the work, and died of apoplexy, after some years of failing health, 7 Dec. 1772. His wife, Elizabeth Hoker, whom he married in 1731, died without issue 27 Feb. 1763.
Of twenty thousand persons in the Isle of Man, few in Hildesley's day were acquainted with English. A Manx translation of the New Testament had been begun by his predecessor, Bishop Wilson. Hildesley's resolve was to supply a complete translation of the whole bible. He himself learned Manx sufficiently well to conduct the services of the church in that language, but never acquired it perfectly. ‘He would give 500l.,’ he once said, ‘were he enough master of Manx as to be able to translate.’ To facilitate his study, John Kelly (1750–1809) [q. v.] composed for his use a grammar and dictionary. At first, with the sanction and support of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which liberally encouraged the undertaking, Hildesley printed the New Testament and the Book of Common Prayer, translated, under his direction, by the clergy of the diocese, as well as the ‘Christian Monitor,’ Lewis's ‘Exposition of the Catechism,’ and Bishop Wilson's ‘Form of Prayer’ for the use of the herring fishermen. But he received such munificent assistance that about 1766 he made arrangements for the translation of the Old Testament, dividing it for this purpose into twenty-four parts, which he distributed among as many translators, nearly all residents in the island, and, with one exception, clergymen. Their names and the books of scripture allotted to them are given in Butler's ‘Life of Bishop Hildesley’ (pp. 252–6). The work was committed for final revision to the Rev. Philip Moore [q. v.] and the Rev. John Kelly. The first volume of the translation was completed on 2 July 1771; the second volume was ready for the press on 6 April 1772; and all was finished and transcribed in December of the same year, at the time of the bishop's death. The work was printed at Whitehaven under the title of: ‘Yn Vible Cashcrick: ny, yn Chenn Chonaant. Veih ny chied ghlaraghyn, dy kiaralagh chyndaït ayns Gailck; ta shen dy ghra, chengey ny mayrey Ellan Vannin.’ It was published in 1773. General Vallancey, in his ‘Grammar of the Irish Language,’ speaks highly of this translation, and notices in one or two instances its superiority to the Irish version (Butler, pp. 233, 670). The second edition of the Manx scriptures was published at Whitehaven in 1775, and the last edition at London in 1819. In 1825 Dr. George Murray, bishop of Sodor and Man, informed the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge that the displacement of Manx by English in the island removed the necessity of providing further copies of the Manx bible.
Hildesley was also author of an anonymous tract entitled ‘Plain Instructions for Young Persons in the Principles of the Christian Religion; in six Conferences between a Minister and his Disciple; designed for the use of the Isle and Diocese of Mann. By a resident Clergyman,’ 2 parts, London, 1762, 1767, 8vo.
[Memoirs of Bishop Hildesley, by the Rev. Weeden Butler, London, 1799, 4to; Gent. Mag. 1772 p. 599, 1781 pp. 106, 306; Bibl. Topographica Britannica, iii. xxiv; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), iii. 328; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iv. 692, v. 730; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. vi. 88, 89, ix. 221, 765; Addit. MS. 5871, f. 207; Bible of Every Land, p. 167; Life and Writings of Bishop Thomas Wilson, 1781, i. cxxviii; Train's Hist. of the Isle of Man, i. 365, 386; Harrison's Account of the Diocese of Sodor and Man, p. 67; Feltham and Wright's Monumental Inscriptions in the Isle of Man, p. 11.]
HILDEYARD, THOMAS (1690–1746), jesuit, of a respectable Lincolnshire family, was born in London on 3 March 1689–90. He was educated in the jesuit college at St. Omer, entered the society on 7 Sept. 1707, and was professed of the four vows on 2 Feb. 1724–5. After teaching philosophy, theology, and mathematics at Liège, he was sent to the English mission. In September 1743 he was declared rector of the ‘college’ of St. Francis Xavier, which included the counties of Hereford, Monmouth, Gloucester, and Somerset, and the whole of South Wales; and died in that office on 10 April (N.S.) 1746 at Rotherwas, near Hereford, the seat of the Bodenham family, where he had been chaplain for upwards of twenty years. He was a scientific mechanician, and some of his ingenious astronomical clocks are said to be at Holt and Rotherwas.
His works are: 1. ‘Lectures on Penance,’ manuscript preserved at the presbytery, St. George's, Worcester. 2. A description of a timepiece invented by himself, which he is said to have published (Caballero).
[Caballero's Hist. Soc. Jesu Suppl. i. 57; Foley's Records, v. 907, vii. 360; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Oliver's Jesuit Collections, p. 116.]
