Walker (Thomas), orator, b. Preston, Lancashire, 5 Feb. 1858. Went to America and at the age of sixteen took to the platform. In ’77 he went to Australia, and for a while lectured at the Opera, Melbourne. In ’82 he started the Australian Secular Association, of which he was president for two years when he went to Sydney. In ’85 he was convicted for lecturing on Malthusianism, but the conviction was quashed by the Supreme Court. In ’87 he was elected M.P. for Northumberland district. Is President of Australian Freethought Union.
Walser (George H.), American reformer, b. Dearborn Co. Indiana, 26 May, 1834. Became a lawyer, and a member of the legislature of his State. He founded the town of Liberal Barton Co. Missouri, to try the experiment of a town without any priest, church, chapel or drinking saloon. Mr. Walser has also sought to establish there a Freethought University.
Ward (Lester Frank). American botanist, b. Joliet, Illinois, 18 June, 1841. He served in the National Army during the civil war and was wounded. In ’65 he settled at Washington and became librarian of the U.S. bureau of statistics. He is now curator of botany and fossil plants in the U.S. national museum. Has written many works on paleo-botany, and two volumes of sociological studies entitled Dynamic Sociology. He has contributed to the Popular Science Monthly.
Ward (Mary A.), translator of Amiel’s Journal, and authoress of a popular novel Robert Elsmere, 1888.
Warren (Josiah). American reformer, b. 26 June, 1798. He took an active part in Robert Owen’s communistic experiment at New Harmony, Indiana, in ’25–6. His own ideas he illustrated by establishing a “time store” at Cincinnati. His views are given in a work entitled True Civilisation. Died Boston, Mass. 14 April, 1874.
Washburn (L. K.), American lecturer and writer, b. Wareham, Plymouth, Mass., 25 March, 1846. In ’57 he went to Barre. Was sent to a Unitarian school for ministers, and was ordained in Ipswich, Feb. ’70. He read from the pulpit extracts from Parker, Emerson, and others instead of the Bible. He went to Minneapolis, where he organised the first Freethought Society in the State. He afterwards resided at Revere, and delivered many Freethought lectures, of which several have been published. He now edits the Boston Investigator.
Waters (Nathaniel Ramsey), American author of Rome v. Reason, a memoir of Christian and extra Christian experience.
Watson (James), English upholder of a free press, b. Malton (Yorks), 21 Sept. 1799. During the prosecution of Carlile and his shopmen in 1822 he volunteered to come from London to Leeds. In Feb. ’23 he was arrested for selling Palmer’s Principles of Nature, tried 23 April, and sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment, during which he read Gibbon, Hume, and Mosheim. When liberated he became a compositor on the Republican. In ’31 Julian Hibbert gave him his type and presses, and he issued Volney’s Lectures on History. In Feb. ’33 he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for selling The Poor Man’s Guardian. Hibbert left him £450, which he used in printing d’Holbach’s System of Nature, Volney’s Ruins, F. Wright’s Lectures, R. D. Owen’s pamphlets, Paine’s works, and other volumes. Died at Norwood, 29 Nov. 1874.
Watson (Thomas), author of The Mystagogue, Leeds, 1847.
Watts (Charles), Secularist orator, b. Bristol, 28 Feb. 1835. Converted to Freethought by hearing Charles Southwell, he became a lecturer and assistant editor on the National Reformer. Mr. Watts has had numerous debates, both in England and America, with Dr. Sexton, Rev. Mr. Harrison, Brewin Grant, and others. He started the Secular Review with G. W. Foote, and afterwards Secular Thought of Toronto. He wrote a portion of The Freethinker’s Text Book, and has published Christianity: its Origin, Nature and Influence; The Teachings of Secularism compared with Orthodox Christianity, and other brochures.