Editing John Wilkins (section)

== Early life ==
He was probably born at [[Canons Ashby]], [[Northamptonshire]], though some sources say [[Fawsley]]; his father Walter Wilkins (died 1623) was a [[goldsmith]] and his mother Jane Dod was daughter of [[John Dod]], a well-known [[conforming Puritan]]. His mother then remarried to Francis Pope, and their son, [[Walter Pope]] was a half-brother.<ref name="Wilkins, John 2004">{{Cite ODNB|last=Henry|first=John|title=Wilkins, John|id=29421}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Geoffrey Russell Richards Treasure|title=Who's who in British History: A-H|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLeeV-mqlJMC&pg=PA1309|date=January 1998|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-884964-90-9|pages=1309–|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180213080417/https://books.google.com/books?id=fLeeV-mqlJMC&pg=PA1309|archive-date=13 February 2018}}</ref>

Wilkins was educated at a school in Oxford run by Edward Sylvester, and matriculated at [[New Inn Hall]]. He then moved to [[Magdalen Hall, Oxford]] where his tutor was [[John Tombes]], and graduated with a BA degree in 1631, an MA degree in 1634.<ref name="Wilkins, John 2004"/> He studied astronomy with [[John Bainbridge (astronomer)|John Bainbridge]].<ref>{{Citation|first=Mordechai|last=Feingold|contribution=Mathematical Sciences and New Philosophies|page=380|editor-first=Nicholas|editor-last=Tyacke|title=The History of the University of Oxford|volume=IV Seventeenth-century Oxford|year=1997}}</ref>

Wilkins went to Fawsley in 1637, a sheep-farming place with little population, dominated by the [[Knightley family]], to whom he and then Dod may have ministered; [[Richard Knightley (died 1639)|Richard Knightley]] had been Dod's patron there. He was ordained a priest of the [[Church of England]] in [[Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford|Christ Church Cathedral]] in February 1638.<ref>{{cite book|author=Barbara J. Shapiro|title=John Wilkins, 1614–1672: An Intellectual Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/johnwilkins161410000shap|url-access=registration|year=1969|publisher=University of California Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/johnwilkins161410000shap/page/257 257]|id=GGKEY:BA7AHU7B3TC}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/knightley-richard-1593-1639|title=''Knightley, Richard (1593–1639), of Fawsley, Northants.'' History of Parliament Online|access-date=28 April 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910133548/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/knightley-richard-1593-1639|archive-date=10 September 2015}}</ref> He then became chaplain successively to [[William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele|Lord Saye and Sele]], and by 1641 to [[George Berkeley, 8th Baron Berkeley|Lord Berkeley]]. In 1644 he became chaplain to Prince [[Karl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine|Charles Louis]], nephew of King [[Charles I of England|Charles I]], who was then in England.<ref name="Wilkins, John 2004"/>