Theaker Wilder

Family

Born 1717 at Castle Wilder, Abbeyshrule, he was the youngest son of Mathew Wilder (d.1719), of Castle Wilder, High Sheriff of Longford, and Eleanor Steuart (d.1729), co-heiress of her uncle General Sir William Steuart. His mother was a daughter of Captain James Steuart (d.1689), but after his death at the Siege of Londonderry she and her brothers and sisters were brought up by their father's younger brother, General Steuart and his first wife Katherine FitzGerald, Viscountess Grandison. Theaker Wilder's uncles included Admiral James Steuart M.P., Admiral of the Fleet; Charles Steaurt (d.1740) of Bailieborough Castle, Co. Cavan; and Brigadier-General The Hon. William Steuart (d.1737) M.P., of Ballylane, Co. Waterford, who through his marriage to his uncle's step-daughter, the Hon. Mary FitzGerald-Villiers, came to be the uncle of Prime Minister William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.

Education

Wilder was tutored at home by Dr. Elwood before entering Trinity College, Dublin as a pensioner (ordinary student) on 8 July 1734. He was awarded a scholarship in 1736, a BA degree in 1738, became a Fellow in 1744 and was awarded an M.A. degree in 1748. He received a D.D. in 1753. He was appointed Donegal Lecturer in 1759 and the first Regius Professor of Greek in 1761. He was succeeded in this post by John Stokes in 1764.

Academics at Trinity College led an affluent life. According to Thomas D'Arcy McGee in his book A Popular History of Ireland: from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics:

The Established Church continued, of course, to monopolise University honours, and to enjoy its princely revenues and all political advantages. Trinity College continued annually to farm its 200,000 acres at a rental averaging 100,000 pounds sterling. Its wealth, and the uses to which it is put, are thus described by a recent writer:

"Some of Trinity's senior fellows enjoy higher incomes than Cabinet ministers; many of her tutors have revenues above those of cardinals; and junior fellows, of a few days' standing, frequently decline some of her thirty-one church livings with benefices which would shame the poverty of scores of continental, not to say Irish, Catholic archbishops. Even eminent judges hold her professorships; some of her chairs are vacated for the Episcopal bench only; and majors and field officers would acquire increased pay by being promoted to the rank of head porter, first menial, in Trinity College. Apart from her princely fellowships and professorships, her seventy Foundation, and sixteen non-Foundation Scholarships, her

Wilder was fairly eccentric, as described in Ireland 120 Years Ago (1851) by John Edward Walsh:

The gownsmen were then a formidable body, and, from a strong esprit de corps, were ready, on short notice, to issue forth in a mass to avenge any insult offered to an individual of their party who complained of it. They converted the keys of their rooms into formidable weapons. They procured them as large and heavy as possible, and slinging them in the sleeves or tails of their gowns, or pocket-handkerchiefs, gave with them mortal blows. Even the fellows participated in this esprit de corps. The interior of the college was considered a sanctuary for debtors; and woe to the unfortunate bailiff who violated its precincts. There stood, at that time, a wooden pump in the centre of the front court to which delinquents in this way were dragged the moment they were detected, and all but smothered. One of the then fellows, Dr. Wilder, [Rev. Theaker Wilder, a good mathematical scholar was tutor to Oliver Goldsmith. He was elected Fellow in 1744; and died in 1777] was a man of very eccentric habits, and possessed little of the gravity and decorum that distinguish the exemplary fellows of Trinity at the present day. He once met a young lady in one of the crossings, where she could not pass him without walking in the mud He stopped opposite her; and, gazing for a moment on her face he laid his hands on each side and kissed her. He then nodded familiarly at the astonished and offended girl and saying, "Take that, miss, for being so handsome" stepped out of the way and let her pass. He was going through the college courts on one occasion when a bailiff was under discipline; he pretended to interfere for the man and called out – "Gentlemen, gentlemen, for the love of God, don't be so cruel as to nail his ears to the pump." The hint was immediately taken; a hammer and nail were sent for, and an ear was fastened with a tenpenny nail; the lads dispersed, and the wretched man remained for a considerable time bleeding, and shrieking with pain, before he was released.

Tutor to Goldsmith

Wilder was appointed tutor to the young Oliver Goldsmith when Goldsmith entered Trinity College as a Sizar in 1744. Because both men were from the same locality, it was thought that Wilder would provide wise counsel to Goldsmith. However, according to Irving and others, the relationship was tempestuous. There were several incidents where Goldsmith was disciplined by Wilder for infractions of the college rules culminating in his running away to Cork (en route to the Colonies). When he had spent all his money wiser heads prevailed and, with Goldsmith's brother Henry acting as peacemaker, he was able to return to his academic studies. He was awarded a B.A. degree in February 1749, two years later than normal.

Some extracts from Goldsmith's biographies:

From Dromore Manuscript of Memoirs of Goldsmith – Wilder... Was equally remarkable for strength, agility and ferocity. He was once seen to have jumped on the box of a Hackney coach, as it passed rapidly through one of the streets in Dublin, and knock the driver from the seat, because in flourishing his whip the unfortunate man had happened to strike Wilder's face. He sometimes, it was said, when he was senior lecturer classed places for entrance not according to merit, but to his own caprice... To Goldsmith he behaved the cruel tyrant rather than the kind instructor, and though he set the example of rioutous and disorderly conduct, was quite savage with the infliction of punishment on his pupil for the slightest offences in the same way

From John Gibson Lockhart –

He was, moreover, unfortunate in having for his tutor a Mr. Wilder, noted for savage temper, who had the ungenerosity to treat students of the subordinate class with peculiar harshness. Wilder might, perhaps, have treated Oliver better, had his turn been for mathematics and the scholastic logic, in which alone he himself excelled and delighted: but Oliver never concealed his dislike of these studies, and for his proficiency, to whatever it may have amounted, in the ancient languages and their elegant literature, the tutor cared little or nothing ... The youthful sizar was a poet, and we need not doubt that his passions at this period fermented with sufficient commotion. His father died before he had been two years in college, and from that time, though he received occasional supplies from his uncle Contarine, according to the statement of a companion, "his poverty was generally squalid." ...

The registers of Trinity furnish evidence of many irregularities; and among the rest Goldsmith figures as aiding and abetting a riot of May, 1747, which began with pumping a bailiff at the college cistern — and ended with the students heading the rabble of the town in an attempt to force Newgate and liberate the prisoners. This frolic was a very serious one — the gaoler fired, and three were killed and several wounded. Five of the gowned ringleaders were expelled, and Goldsmith and four others were ordered to be admonished "Quod seditioni favissent et tumultuantibus opem tulissent."

Mr. Wilder

From Alexander Chalmers – The materials for a life of Dr. Goldsmith are very copious, although, not perhaps uniformly authentic ...

rev. Mr. Wilder

From Henry Francis Cary – In June, 1744, he was sent a sizer to Trinity College, Dublin, and placed under the tuition of Mr. Wilder, one of the fellows, who is represented to have been of a temper so morose as to excite the strongest disgust in the mind of his pupil. He did not pass through his academical course without distinction. Dr. Kearney (who was afterwards provost), in a note on Boswell's Life of Johnson, informs us, that Goldsmith gained a premium at the Christmas examination, which, according to Mr. Malone, is more honourable than those obtained at the other examinations, inasmuch as it is the only one that determines the successful candidate to be the first in literary merit. This is enough to disprove what Johnson is reported to have said of him, that he was a plant that flowered late; that there appeared nothing remarkable about him when he was young; though, when he had got in fame, one of his friends began to recollect something of his being distinguished at college. Whether he took a degree is not known. On one occasion he narrowly escaped expulsion for having been concerned in the rescue of a student, who, in violation of the supposed privileges of the University, had been arrested for debt within its precincts: but his superiors contented themselves with passing a public censure on him.

From Sir Walter Scott – An uncle by affinity, the Rev. Thomas Contarine, undertook the expense of affording to so promising a youth the advantages of a scholastic education. He was put to school at Edgeworths-town, and, in June 1744, was sent to Dublin College as a sizer; a situation which subjected him to much discouragement and ill usage, especially as he had the misfortune to fall under the charge of a brutal tutor.

From Thomas Campbell – He was admitted a sizer or servitor of Trinity college, Dublin, in his sixteenth year, [11th June, 1745] a circumstance which denoted considerable proficiency; and three years afterwards was elected one of the exhibitioners on the foundation of Erasmus Smith. But though he occasionally distinguished himself by his translations from the classics, his general appearance at the university corresponded neither with the former promises, nor future development of his talents. He was, like Johnson, a lounger at the college-gate. He gained neither premiums nor a scholarship, and was not admitted to the degree of bachelor of arts till two years after the regular time. His backwardness, it would appear, was the effect of despair more than of wilful negligence. He had been placed under a savage tutor, named Theaker Wilder, who used to insult him at public examinations, and to treat his delinquencies with a ferocity that broke his spirit. On one occasion, poor Oliver was so imprudent as to invite a company of young people, of both sexes, to a dance and supper in his rooms; on receiving intelligence of which, Theaker grimly repaired to the place of revelry, belaboured him before his guests, and rudely broke up the assembly. The disgrace of this inhuman treatment drove him for a time from the university. He set out from Dublin, intending to sail from Cork for some other country, he knew not whither; but, after wandering about till he was reduced to such famine, that he thought a handful of grey peas, which a girl gave him at a wake, the sweetest repast he had ever tasted, he returned home, like the prodigal son, and matters were adjusted for his being received again at college.

From William Howitt – Trinity College, Dublin, is a noble structure; and, with its spacious courts and extensive gardens, more fittingly deserving the name of parks, one would think a place where the years of studentship might – especially in the heart of such a city – be very agreeably spent. But Goldsmith entered there under circumstances that were irksome to him, and to add to the matter, he met with a brute in his tutor. The family income did not allow him to occupy a higher rank than that of a sizer, or poor scholar, and this was mortifying to his sensitive mind. The sizer wears a black gown of coarse stuff without sleeves, a plain black cloth cap without a tassel, and dines at the fellows' table after they have retired. It was at that period far worse; they wore red caps to distinguish them, and were compelled to perform derogatory offices; to sweep the courts in the morning, carry up the dishes from the kitchen to the fellows' table, and wait in the hall till they had dined. No wonder that a mind like that of Goldsmith's writhed under the degradation! He has recorded his own feelings and opinions on this custom: "Sure pride itself has dictated to the fellows of our colleges the absurd fashion of being attended at meals, and on other public occasions, by those poor men who, willing to be scholars, come in upon some charitable foundation. It implies a contradiction, for men to be at once learning the liberal arts and at the same time treated as slaves; at once studying freedom and practising servitude." A spirited fellow at length caused the abolition of the practice of the sizers acting as waiters, and that, too, on grand occasions before the public, by flinging the dish he was carrying on Trinity Sunday, at the head of a citizen in the crowd, assembled to witness the scene, who made some jeering remarks on the office he had to perform.

Wilder

From The Cambridge History of English and American Literature At this date, he must have been between fourteen and fifteen; and, whatever his ability, it seems to have been decided that he should follow his elder brother Henry to Trinity college, Dublin, though not with the same advantages. Henry Goldsmith, who was five or six years his brother’s senior, had gone as a pensioner and obtained a scholarship. For Oliver, this was impracticable. His father, a poor man, had, from family pride, further crippled himself by undertaking to portion his second daughter, Catherine, who had clandestinely married the son of a rich neighbour. In these circumstances, nothing was open to Goldsmith but to obtain his university education as a poor scholar, a semi-menial condition which, to one already morbidly sensitive, could not fail to be distasteful. For a long time, he fought doggedly against his fate; but, at length, yielding to the persuasions of a friendly uncle Contarine, who had himself gone through the same ordeal, he was admitted to Trinity college as a sizar on 11 June 1744, taking up his abode in one of the garrets of what was then the eastern side of Parliament square.

The academic career thus inauspiciously begun was not worshipful. From the outset, he was dispirited and disappointed, and, consequently, without energy or enthusiasm. Moreover, he was unfortunate in his tutor, a clergyman named Theaker Wilder, who, though his bad qualities may have been exaggerated, was certainly harsh and unsympathetic (emphasis added). His forte, too, was mathematics, which Goldsmith, like Swift, like Gray, like Johnson, detested as cordially as he detested the arid logic of “Dutch Burgersdyck” and Polish Smiglesius. According to Stubbs's History of the University of Dublin, Oliver Goldsmith is recorded on one or two occasions as being remarkably diligent at Morning Lecture; again, as cautioned for bad answering at Morning and Greek Lectures; and finally, as put down into the next class for neglect of his studies.

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Marriage and family

In about 1746, he married Letitia Grove (b.c.1724), of Castle Shanahan, Co. Donegal. In 1771, after the death of his brother, Steuart Wilder, he inherited Lisdornan, Co. Meath, that had previously belonged to their mother's uncle, General Sir William Steuart. Theaker continued to reside at Grovehall, Ramelton, gifted to him by his wife's kinsman, James Grove, High Sheriff of Donegal. Three of their children (Henry, Oliver and Nancy) died unmarried. They were survived by two sons:

Mathew Wilder (d.1792) inherited Castle Wilder from his uncle Steuart Wilder, and served as High Sheriff of Longford. In 1772, he married Eleanor, sister of Lt.-General Sir Hugh Lyle Carmichael. Their son, Mathew Carlisle Wilder (1775–1809), left Castle Wilder to his son-in-law, Captain Hugh Pollock, who sold it in 1845.

James Wilder (1764–1788), married Sarah Drought (1764–1788), the eldest daughter of his first cousin Rev. James Drought (1738–1820), and sister of Mrs Richard Graves. James Drought's mother, Sarah (Wilder) Drought, was Theaker's sister.

Theaker and Letitia Wilder were the grandparents of Letitia Denniston (otherwise Coll, 1775–1863) of Cocksheath, Carrigart, Co. Donegal.

Later life and death

He became rector of Tullyaughnish (Ramelton, Co. Donegal) in 1769 and died in late 1777 or, most likely, January 1778 at his home, Grovehall (a townland between Ramelton and Kilmacrenan – not Castle Grove near Letterkenny). The living of Tullyaughnish was in the gift of Trinity College, Dublin at that time.

His death was reported in the first issue of the Dublin Evening Journal and a few days later in The Londonderry Journal. According to one account – "It is interesting to know that Mr. Theaker Wilder was killed in a drunken riot, just at the time when Goldsmith's social success was at its height" – but this cannot be true since Goldsmith had already been dead for almost four years by the time Wilder died. Another source ascribes his death to an accident sustained when arriving home late from a local hostelry. In any event, his widow took steps to secure his assets. Advertisements to this effect appeared in the Londonderry Journal for several weeks after his death.

The notice of his death in the Dublin Evening Journal of 3 February 1778, reads:

Deaths Near Rathmelton, the Rev. Dr. Wilder, formerly a fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.

The notices in the Londonderry Journal read:

The Inhabitants of Tully and Aughnish, in the County of Donegal, who are indebted to the Heirs of the late Dr. Wilder for Rent, Tythes, &c. are desired to pay the same immediately to Mr. John Delap of Rathmelton. - 16th Feb 1778 Letitia Wilder

and

A Caution Those who are indebted to the Rev. Dr. Theaker Wilder, of Grovehall, near Rathmelton, in the County of Donegal, deceased, by Bond, Note or otherwise, are desired not to pay any Person but me, his Widow, who purposes to administer immediately, or to my Lawful Attorney; and those who can give information of any of his Effects that may be secreted to Mr. Smyth, No. 8, William-street, Dublin, or to me at Mr Robert Nesbet's, Rathmelton, shall be rewarded. Given under my hand this 1st Day of February, 1778 Letitia Wilder

Publications

Wilder published a translation of Newton's Universal arithmetick to which he contributed notes. The book was published in London in 1769. It was begun by Wilder's colleague in Trinity College, Dublin, James Maguire, but was unfinished at the time of Maguire's death. The enterprise was undertaken by Wilder at the behest of Maguire's family –

... John and Bridget, the Brother and Sister

of the Author James Maguire: And to the Use of his Representatives, the Profits (if any) of this Work are by Deed conveyed; the Losses, if any, are to be sustained solely by me.

The Library of Congress citation reads:

LC Control No.: 01003431 Type of Material: Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.) Personal Name: Newton, Isaac, Sir, 1642-1727. Main Title: Universal arithmetick: or, A treatise of arithmetical composition and resolution. Written in Latin by Sir Isaac Newton. Translated by the late Mr. Ralphson; and rev. and cor. by Mr. Cunn. To which is added, a treatise upon the measures of ratios, by James Maguire, A.M. The whole illustrated and explained, in a series of notes, by the Rev. Theaker Wilder ... Published/Created: London, Printed for W. Johnston, 1769. Related Names: Cunn, Mr. (Samuel), ed. Raphson (sic), Joseph, d. 1715 or 16, tr. Wilder, Theaker. Description: 2 v. in 1. VIII fold. diagr. 21 cm. Notes: Paged continuously. "Of the methods by which you may approximate to the roots of numeral equations", By Colin MacLaurin: p. [505]-536. Subjects: AlgebraEarly works to 1800. LC Classification: QA35 .N564 Language Code: englat ______________________________ CALL NUMBER: QA35 .N564 Copy 1 Request in: Jefferson or Adams Bldg General or Area Studies Reading Rms Status: Not Charged

The publication is also mentioned in Allibone. In addition to Newton's first edition, there were several other editions of this book – Latin editions of 1722, 1732, 1761 and Ralphson's English editions of 1720 and 1728 before Wilder and Maguire's contributions.