Danger;’ and after the seceders had formed a presbytery of their own, it was through the influence of Willison and his friends that the assembly of 1734 rescinded the acts which had given them offence, and authorised the synod of Stirling to restore them to their former status. This assembly also sent Willison and two others to London to endeavour to procure the repeal of the act of 1712 which restored the right of patronage to the former patrons. For five years more the assembly persevered in its efforts to reclaim the seceders, and when at length it resolved to libel them, Willison with others dissented. As the seceders now declined the authority of the church and declared that its judicatories were ‘not lawful nor right constitute courts of Christ,’ the assembly found that they deserved deposition; but, on the earnest solicitation of Willison and his friends, the execution of the sentence was postponed for a year to give them a further opportunity of returning from their ‘divisive’ courses. They still stood out, however, and it is said that ‘the failure of Willison's efforts to prevent a schism so overwhelmed him with grief that he did not take an active share in church courts after that time.’ In 1742 Willison visited Cambuslang to see for himself the nature of the celebrated religious revival there which is associated with the name of Whitefield, and on his return journey he preached a sermon at Kilsyth which was followed by a like movement in that parish. In 1744 he published ‘A Fair and Impartial Testimony’ (to which several ministers and elders adhered) against the defections of the national church, the lamentable schism begun and carried on by the seceders, the adoption of liturgical forms and popish practices by Scottish episcopalians, and other innovations. In 1745 he published ‘Popery another Gospel,’ which he dedicated to the Duke of Cumberland. During the rising of 1745 highlanders belonging to Prince Charles's army twice entered his church and threatened to shoot him if he prayed for King George, so that he was obliged for a time to close the church and to officiate in private houses. Besides his controversial works, Willison published numerous treatises on devotional and practical religion, many of which were translated into Gaelic and were great favourites with the Scottish people. Willison was one of the most eminent evangelical clergymen of his time. He was remarkable for his combination of personal piety with public spirit, and, though frequently engaged in controversy, ‘there was no asperity in what he said or wrote.’ Faithful in every department of duty, he was specially noted for his diligence in catechising the young and in visiting the sick. He died on 3 May 1750 in the seventieth year of his age, and was buried in the South church, Dundee. On 11 Nov. 1714 he married Margaret, daughter of William Arrot, minister of Montrose, and had Andrew, a physician in Dundee; a daughter, who became the wife of W. Bell, minister of Arbroath, and other children. George Willison [q. v.] was his grandson.
Willison's principal works, besides those mentioned above, are: 1. ‘The Sanctification of the Lord's Day,’ 1713. 2. ‘A Sacramental Directory,’ 1716. 3. ‘Sermons before and after the Lord's Supper,’ 1722. 4. ‘The Mother's Catechism: an Example of Plain Catechising on the Shorter Catechism,’ 1731. 5. ‘The Young Communicant's Catechism,’ 1734. 6. ‘The Afflicted Man's Companion,’ 1737. 7. ‘The Balm of Gilead,’ 1742. 8. ‘Sacramental Meditations and Advices,’ 1747. 9. ‘Gospel Hymns,’ 1791. Most of them have been often republished, and there have been several collected editions of his practical works.
[Life by Dr. Hetherington prefixed to edition of Works, 1844; Life prefixed to his Collected Works, Aberdeen, 1817, and to edition of the Afflicted Man's Companion; Chambers's Biogr. Dict. vol. iv.; Morren's Annals of Gen. Assembly, 1739–52; Wodrow's Letters, vol. iii.; Scott's Fasti, III. ii. 692, 813; Robe on Revivals; Black's Brechin; information from Willison's descendants and from Mr. W. B. Cook, Stirling.]
WILLMORE, JAMES TIBBITTS (1800–1863), line engraver, was born in 1800 at Erdington, near Handsworth, where his father, James Willmore, was a manufacturer of silver articles. He was apprenticed at Birmingham to William Radclyffe [q. v.], and, marrying at the age of twenty-two, came to London, where he worked for three years as assistant to Charles Heath (1785–1818) [q. v.] The earliest important works on which he was engaged were Turner's ‘England and Wales,’ 1827–38, and Brockedon's ‘Passes of the Alps,’ 1828–9; and his first large plate was executed from Eastlake's picture of ‘Byron's Dream,’ 1834. Willmore was extremely successful in translating the work of Turner, who greatly appreciated his abilities, and his plates from that artist's ‘Mercury and Argus,’ ‘Ancient Italy,’ ‘The Golden Bough,’ ‘Oberwesel,’ ‘The Old Temeraire,’ ‘Venice’ (engraved for the Art Union, 1858), and ‘Childe Harold's Pilgrimage’ (Art Union, 1861), are among the finest examples of modern landscape work. Some of these he re-engraved on a
