Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wilson, John Matthias
WILSON, JOHN MATTHIAS (1813–1881), president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, eldest son of William Wilson of South Shields, was born at that town on 24 Sept. 1813. He received his early education as a day scholar at the grammar school of Newcastle-on-Tyne, under Dr. Mortimer, subsequently headmaster of the City of London school. On 15 June 1832 he was elected to a scholarship open to natives of the bishopric of Durham at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1836, M.A. in 1839, and B.D. in 1847. While still a bachelor scholar he became tutor in 1838, and succeeded to a fellowship on 28 April 1841. In 1846 he was elected to White's professorship of moral philosophy, then a terminable office, re-elected in 1851, and finally re-elected in 1858, after it had been converted into a permanent chair. His lectures given in this capacity, and perhaps still more the stimulating assistance in their private work which he ungrudgingly afforded to his pupils, procured him a considerable reputation in the university as a teacher. In the fifties and sixties many of the best men in Oxford passed under his hands, and he gave a great impetus to the inductive study both of morals and psychology. This office he continued to hold till 1874. Meanwhile, as a leading member of the Hebdomadal Council, to which he was elected soon after its first institution, he had taken a prominent part in the business of the university, for which his shrewd common sense specially fitted him, and, as an ardent university reformer, he was largely instrumental in bringing about the abolition of religious tests and in procuring the issue of the parliamentary commissions of 1854 and 1877. From 1868 to 1872 Wilson held the college living of Byfield, Northamptonshire, in conjunction with his professorship, but this ecclesiastical preferment he resigned on being elected to the presidentship of his college, 8 May 1872. He entered on the duties of this office with much zeal and energy, but, unfortunately, soon after his election to the presidency his health gave way, and during the last few years of his life he was largely incapacitated from taking part in the administration of the college. After a long illness he died on 1 Dec. 1881. He was buried in the Holywell cemetery, Oxford, but is commemorated by a mural tablet in the college cloisters.
Though Wilson was a fluent talker and an impressive lecturer, he was singularly slow in composition, a circumstance due partly to his fastidiousness, and partly to the want of practice in early life. He did not produce any independent book, but was engaged for many years, in conjunction with the writer of the present article, on a work entitled ‘The Principles of Morals,’ the first part of which appeared in the fifth year after his death, 1886, under their joint names, and the second part in 1887 under the name of Dr. Fowler alone. The share taken by Wilson in the first part is indicated in the preface to the second part, and that taken in the second part itself in the advertisement at the beginning of the volume. The two parts were reissued with additions and corrections, in 1894, under the names of Fowler and Wilson.
Wilson was a man of marked personality. Physically he was of strong build and commanding presence. He had a determined will, and possessed great skill in bringing over other people to his own opinions. Though he did not lay claim to any extensive erudition, he was full of intellectual life and interests, a shrewd observer, and an acute thinker, who, to use a favourite phrase of Locke, tried to ‘bottom’ everything. These qualities, combined with a deep sonorous voice, a frank outspokenness, a keen sense of humour, the knack of saying ‘good things,’ and a genial manner, made him highly popular among his friends, and, during the more vigorous period of his life, one of the greatest powers in the university. He was unmarried. Two sisters, who had lived with him for many years before his death, survived him.
[Fowler's History of Corpus Christi College; College Registers; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886; personal knowledge; private information.]