Thomas Wilson (11 November 1764 – 17 June 1843) was a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

benefactor of chapels and educational institutions and founder member of the Council of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

from 1825. Thomas Wilson was a man of considerable wealth, his income being drawn from the manufacture of silk ribbon and from Remington family legacies ( John Remington Mills was his nephew). As a prominent Victorian philanthropist, and a model to many, he promoted many causes, principally educational and theological. Between 1794 and 1843, he was treasurer of Hoxton Academy and its successor

Highbury College, Middlesex Highbury College was a dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by English Dissenters. Its most famous student was Christopher Newman Hall. It had a high reputation, and in time it was amalgamated into New College London. History ...

. From 1825 onwards he was a founder member of Council of

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. Wilson was an early director of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

, and in 1837 he became one of the founders of the Metropolitan Chapel Fund Association. Prior to this, he had already built at his own expense, several new Congregational chapels in London and elsewhere; the most famous being Claremont Chapel in

Pentonville Pentonville is an area on the northern fringe of Central London, in the London Borough of Islington. It is located north-northeast of Charing Cross on the Inner Ring Road. Pentonville developed in the northwestern edge of the ancient parish ...

(1819) and Craven Chapel in Regent Street,

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

(1822). Paddington Chapel in Westminster was another of Wilson's foundations, and here the congregation included Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Samuel Dyer. Thomas Wilson's son and biographer, Joshua Wilson (1795–1874), was instrumental in proposals to form the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Letters addressed to Thomas Wilson's wife are preserved at

Dr Williams's Library Dr Williams's Library is a small English research library in Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, London. Historically, it has had a strong Unitarian focus. The library has also been known as University Hall. History The library was founded using the e ...

in London. A memorial to Wilson stands in Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington, London, in the Yew Walk.

References

*Joshua Wilson, ''A Memoir of the Life and Character of Thomas Wilson esq, Treasurer of Highbury College'', John Snow, Lond. 1846 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Thomas English Congregationalists 1764 births 1843 deaths Wilson, Thomas (philanthropist)