POWER ENOUGH FOR ISLINGTON AND CALCUTTA: DANIEL WILSON, SR.
Except for the chapel of ease, the numerous Anglican churches built in Islington during the 19th century were not due to George Strahan, nor erected under his vicarate. They were fruits of the labours of his two successors, a dynamic father-and-son team who together occupied the vicarate from 1824 until 1886. And, if Strahan had notably failed to inspire from the pulpit, the sermons preached by the first of the twosome spread the Word far and wide, propelling St Mary's into the front ranks of Evangelical Anglicanism.
Even though his vicarate lasted only eight years, from 1824 to 1832, Daniel Wilson (1778-1858) remains one of the most noted and beloved prelates ever to have served St Mary's. The son of a wealthy London silk manufacturer, he married his cousin Ann, whose father had purchased the church patronage in 1811. At his death in 1821, Ann's father bequeathed the living to his son-in-law, and when George Strahan died three years later, Wilson appointed himself vicar. He preached his first sermon on July 2, 1824, but it was not an auspicious beginning, as ill health postponed his taking full charge of the parish until the following November. In addition, many parishioners initially resented Wilson's "self-appointment." Others opposed his Evangelical leanings, already well known from his work in Oxford and London. From all accounts, however, his gentle but firm manner soon triumphed over all complaints. When he left Islington even those most opposed initially had been converted to his numerous worthwhile causes.
Illustration 49: This portrait of Daniel Wilson, Sr., captures the strength and vigor of St Mary's most famous vicar. It has recently been restored, and hangs in the church offices.
When Wilson arrived, Islington was growing at an heretofore unprecedented rate. A fine sense of the situation and the growing pains the formerly rural town was experiencing is afforded by the first verse of a poem titled "Suburban Sonnets," published in Hone's Table Book of 1827:
Thy fields, Fair Islington, begin to bear
Unwelcome buildings and unseemly piles;
The streets are spreading and the Lord knows where
Improvement's hand will spare the neighbouring stiles.
By 1821 the population stood at 22,417, with only St Mary's and St Mary Magdalene serving its parishioners. Wilson's immediate response was to hold more Sunday services at St Mary's. At the time there were only two services: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In addition to an 8:00 a.m. communion, Wilson initiated an evening service, at which all pews were free. For the first time, anyone could sit wherever he or she liked. What began in Islington as a virtually unheard of innovation eventually became conventional throughout the church. The fact that the parish could boast of 6,454 free sittings in its fourteen places of worship by 1851 could not have happened without Wilson's initiative.
Even the two additional Sunday services Wilson launched were little more than "first-aid" treatment for a condition that needed a major operation. On March 18, 1827, for example, he observed that St Mary's was so crowded that as many as four hundred people had to be turned away. Fortunately, help was already on the way. In 1825, as discussed in "Sons and Daughters," arrangements were being made for three additional churches in Islington. More would soon follow.
That Daniel Wilson's sermons were worth hearing was attested to by many accounts. Noted for his vigorous style of preaching, characterized by short, often pungent, sentences that he hoped would goad his hearers, Wilson always hit his mark. "But though men might smile, they never slept," one biographer has commented. Early in his career, ill health had compelled Wilson to preach while sitting, rather than standing. This practice became habitual, and at St Mary's he traditionally sat on a high stool within the pulpit, his feet resting on canes, carefully wedged and out of view of the congregation. This arrangement in effect raised him to the height of someone standing in the pulpit. When he actually did stand, which he often did to emphasize a point, some thought he had the appearance of a giant, others that he was about to fly out of the pulpit. Either way, it was dramatic, and had its desired effect. Certainly Wilson was no miniature Moses when he spoke from the pulpit, and no one ever played cards while he preached.
Among other accomplishments during his Islington years, Wilson established the Islington Clerical Meeting, later Conference. From an initial meeting of thirteen clergymen (he and twelve others) held in the vicarage on 4 January 1827, the conference grew swiftly in size and importance. Its annual conferences soon became the largest and most influential gatherings of Evangelical Anglican clergy and a focus for Evangelicalism in the Church of England. By 1880, over 300 clergy attended its annual meetings, and by the turn of the 20th century, over 1,000 attendees was the norm. Meetings were held in Islington, in consecutive larger halls, until the time came when no borough premises was large enough. In 1920, the 93rd annual meeting was moved to Church House, Westminster, which then became its home. Along with the change in venue came an official name change, from Meeting to Conference. The conference ceased holding meetings in 1983, but they have recently been resurrected.
It was also during Wilson's Islington pastorate, on 31 January 1825, that the College of the Church Missionary Society opened its doors. This was the Established Church's first missionary seminary in England, and its graduates did their part to spread the Evangelical message throughout the world. The institution was housed in a large building several blocks north of St Mary's. Thomas Shepherd didn't care for the building (which has been demolished), though he appreciated the cause it served:
It looks more like the baldness of northern Calvinism, than the chaste beauties of the simply decorated church of England... It consists of a centre and two wings, without a single attempt at architectural decoration... It is however a plain, substantial, useful building, adapted to a very laudable purpose.
Illustration 50: The Church Missionary Society College, or Institute, which stood on Islington's Upper Street, not far from St Mary's Church. From Thomas Shepherd's 1828 book, Metropolitan Improvements: or London in the Nineteenth Century.
Wilson's personal life during his Islington years was marked by numerous tragedies. His wife died in 1827, only three years after he arrived at St Mary's. Three of their six children died in their early years, and another son soon followed.
In 1832, when he was fifty-four years old, Wilson was appointed Bishop of Calcutta. At that time, as his biographer, Josiah Bateman, sagely observed, "the See of Calcutta (which extended from India to Australia and included Burma and Malay as well) was not a prize to be coveted, but a great sacrifice which most avoided." Not Daniel Wilson, Sr.
Charles Woodward, a parishioner at St Mary's, took the occasion to write Wilson to say how much Islington would miss him. Wilson responded on March 29, 1832, assuring his friend that "He that holds the stars in his right hand, and walks in the midst of the golden candlesticks, has grace and power enough for Islington and Calcutta." A committee appointed to present a memorial to their beloved vicar determined to give him "some article or articles which, being in every day use, would most frequently bring to his Lordship's mind the kindness and good wishes of his late parishioners." They decided unanimously to present a silver inkstand and a timepiece. For his part, after thanking the chairman for the gifts, Wilson wrote: "may I beg of you to appropriate the draft on the other side to the purchase of a stock of Coals, to be distributed in the ensuing winter...for the comfort of the Poor, in such proportions, and at such times, as may be judged, by you and the Committee, as most beneficial?" The draft was for a hundred guineas.
Wilson, both a great and a good man, returned for a visit to Islington in May 1845, staying with his son in the familiar vicarage. He returned to India in August 1846, then died in Calcutta on Jan. 2, 1858, age 80. He is buried in that city's St Paul's Cathedral, which he founded.