Wilkins (Wilke), David (1685-06-11 - 1745-09-06)

Wilkins was born in Memel, Lithuania, with the Prussian surname Wilke. After studying in Germany, he came to England and adopted the Anglicanized surname Wilkins. He is known to have been in England by 1707, when he studied in the Bodleian Library. In England he produced published translations of Coptic texts. Wilkins was denied an MA from Oxford in 1712 but received a DD from Cambridge in 1717. In 1724 he was made Lord Almoner's Reader of Arabic at Cambridge. Having converted to Anglicanism, Wilkins was made librarian at Lamberth Palace by William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, a post he held from 1715 to 1719. He was Wake's chaplain in 1719. Wilkins was rector of Little Mongeham, Kent (1716-1719), Great Chart, Kent (1719), Hadleigh, Suffolk (1719-1745), and Monks Eleigh, Suffolk (1719-1745). He became prebend of Canterbury in 1721 and archdeacon of Suffolk in 1724.