David Wilkins 1685-1745

David WILKINS 1685-1745

Biographical Note

David Wilkins (1685–1745) was born David Wilke in Memel, Prussia, where his father was Bürgermeister, and later anglicised his name to Wilkins. Following his arrival in England he had been Archbishop Wake's librarian at Lambeth Palace (1717–1720), and rector of Mongeham Parva (1716) and Great Chart (1719). He resigned both rectories in 1719 for those of Hadleigh and Monks Eleigh in Suffolk, before obtaining a prebend at Canterbury Cathedral in 1721 (Stall XII) and the archdeaconry of Suffolk in 1724. He was appointed reader in Arabic at Cambridge, 1724–1729 but was still active in the Chapter at Canterbury e.g. as Treasurer in 1725-1726. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1720.

Wilkins was a Coptic scholar with a wide knowledge of ancient and Semitic languages which was described as 'extensive rather than profound'. He published the editio princeps of the Novum Testamentum Aegyptium (the Coptic New Testament) in 1716. Subsequent publications included the Anglo-Saxon laws, the complete works of John Selden (1725-1726) and the Coptic Pentateuch (1731). His main work was his Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae (1737).

Books

His library, which is likely to have been extensive, was dispersed after his death. Some of his manuscripts are in the Bodleian Library.

Sources

• Hamilton, Alastair. "Wilkins, David (1685–1745), Coptic scholar." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• JISC Archives Hub.
• Canterbury Cathedral Provenance.