[Wigtownshire] (36), the most southerly county in Scotland, in the SW. of which the largest town is Stranraer, and the county town Wigtown; it is an agricultural county, and largely pastoral.
[Wilberforce, Samuel], English prelate, born at Clapham, third son of the succeeding; entered Oriel College, Oxford, at 18, where he distinguished himself by his powers of debate; took holy orders, and rose to eminence in the Church; was made Bishop of Oxford in 1845, and of Winchester in 1869; was a High Churchman of the pure Anglican type, and equally opposed to Romanism and Nonconformity; shone in society by his wit and powers of conversation; Carlyle often "exchanged pleasant dialogues with him, found him dexterous, stout and clever, far from being a bad man"; "I do not hate him," he said to Froude one day, "near so much as I fear I ought to do"; he found him "really of a religious nature," and secretly in sympathy with himself on religious matters; was killed by a fall from his horse; he was popularly known by the sobriquet of "Soapy Sam" (1805-1873).
[Wilberforce, William], eminent philanthropist, born at Hull, son of a wealthy merchant; attended St. John's College, Cambridge, at 17; represented his native town in Parliament as soon as he was of age; he was early and deeply impressed with the inhumanity of the slave-trade, and to achieve its abolition became the ruling passion of his life; with that object he introduced a bill for its suppression in 1789, but it was not till 1801 he carried the Commons with him, and he had to wait six years longer before the House of Lords supported his measure and the Emancipation Act was passed; he retired into private life in 1825, and died three days after the vote of 20 millions to purchase the freedom of the West Indian slaves; he was an eminently religious man of the Evangelical school; wrote "Practical View of Christianity" (1759-1833).
[Wild, Jonathan], an English villain, who for housebreaking was executed in 1725, and the hero of Fielding's novel of the name; he had been a detective; was hanged amid execration on the part of the mob at his execution.
[Wilderness], a district covered with brushwood in Virginia, U.S., the scene of a two days' terrible conflict between the Federals and the Confederates on the 5th and 6th May 1864.
[Wildfire, Madge], a character in the "Heart of Midlothian," who, being seduced, had, in her misery under a sense of her crime, gone crazy.
[Wilfrid, St.], a Saxon bishop of York, born in Northumbria; brought up at Lindisfarne; had a checkered life of it; is celebrated in legend for his success in converting pagans, and is usually represented in the act; d. 709.
[Wilhelmina I.], queen of the Netherlands, daughter of William III., and who ascended the throne on his decease in November 1890; her mother, a sister of the Duchess of Albany, acted as regent during her minority, and she became of age on the 11th August 1898, when she was installed as sovereign amid the enthusiasm of her people; b. 1880.
[Wilhelmshaven] (13), the chief naval port of Germany, on Jahde Bay, 43 m. NW. of Bremen.
[Wilkes, Charles], American naval officer; made explorations in the Southern Ocean in 1861; boarded on the high seas the British mail-steamer Trent, and carried off two Confederate commissioners accredited to France, who were afterwards released on the demand of the British Government (1798-1877).