Samuel Wix (1771–1861) was anEnglish cleric and controversialist.
Born in London on 9 February 1771, he was the second son of Edward Wix ofSt. Peter's, Cornhill. He was educated atCharterhouse School underSamuel Berdmore, and was admitted at theInner Temple (16 August 1783). He studied atChrist's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted pensioner on 8 November 1791, and elected scholar on 6 December 1792. He graduated B.A. in 1796 and M.A. in 1799.[1][2]
Wix was ordained deacon in 1798 and priest in 1800. After holding a number ofcuracies,[3] he was presented in 1802 to the living ofInworth,Essex. Six years later he was elected hospitaller and vicar ofSt Bartholomew's the Less in London. He was also for a time president ofSion College.[1]
A fellow of theRoyal Society and theSociety of Antiquaries of London. He died at the vicarage, St. Bartholomew's, London, on 4 September 1861. A tablet to his memory was erected in the church by the governors ofSt. Bartholomew's Hospital.[1]
AHigh Church traditionalist, Wix involved himself in controversy. His first publication wasScriptural Illustrations of the Thirty-nine Articles, with a practical Commentary on each … affectionately intended to promote Religious Peace and Unity,. It was followed in 1818 by a more ambitiouseirenicon, published originally in theEclectic Review, entitledReflections concerning the Expediency of a Council of the Church of England and the Church of Rome being holden, with a view to accommodate Religious Differences. This produced, among other answers, an angry reply fromThomas Burgess. Wix wrote two rejoinders.Reflections also attracted the attention ofJerome, 4th Count de Salis-Soglio, who became Wix's lifelong friend, and had the book translated at his own expense into several foreign languages.[1]
Wix was opposed toCatholic Emancipation, and in 1822 issued a pamphlet in support of his views. He wrote many similar pamphlets.[1] He also supported theSociety for the Improvement of Prison Discipline led byBasil Montagu;[4] and wroteReflections Concerning the Expediency and Unchristian Character of Capital Punishments, as Prescribed by the Criminal Laws of England (1832).[5]
By his wife, Frances Walford ofSible Hedingham, Wix had several children. The eldest son wasEdward Wix (1802–1866), a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford, was sometime archdeacon of Newfoundland, and afterwards vicar of St. Michael's,Swanmore, near Ryde, where he died on 24 November 1866, being succeeded in the parish by his son, Richard Hooker Edward Wix (1832–1884). He was a frequent contributor to theGentleman's Magazine, and the author ofSix Months of a Newfoundland Missionary's Journal, 1836, and ofA Retrospect of the Operations of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in North America, 2nd edit. 1833.[1]
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1900). "Wix, Samuel".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 62. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
