Editing John Wilkins (section)

==After the Restoration==
[[File:Royal Society - Council Minutes of the Royal Society 6.jpg|thumb|Wilkins' signature as Secretary, signing off the 1667 accounts of the [[Royal Society]], from the minutes book]]
Upon the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] in 1660, the new authorities deprived Wilkins of the position given him by Cromwell; he gained appointment as [[prebendary]] of York and [[rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]] of [[Cranford, London|Cranford]], [[Middlesex]].  In 1661, he was reduced to preacher at [[Gray's Inn]], lodging with his friend [[Seth Ward (bishop of Salisbury)|Seth Ward]]. In 1662, he became vicar of [[St Lawrence Jewry]], London. He suffered in the [[Great Fire of London]], losing his vicarage, library and scientific instruments.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26674/26674-h/26674-h.htm|title=Project Gutenberg|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080927181647/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26674/26674-h/26674-h.htm|archive-date=27 September 2008}}.</ref>

Possessing strong scientific tastes, Wilkins was a founding member of the [[Royal Society]] and was soon elected fellow and one of the Society's two secretaries: he shared the work with [[Henry Oldenburg]], whom he had met in Oxford in 1656.<ref name="Wilkins, John 2004"/><ref>{{Citation|editor1-first=Daniel|editor1-last=Garber|editor2-first=Michael|editor2-last=Ayers|title='The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-century Philosophy|year=2003|volume=II|page=1455}}.</ref>