Robert Hindley Wilkinson (1811 – 5 February 1888) was a British academic, and a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er with amateur status who was active from 1828 to 1831.

Life

Wilkinson was born in London, the son of Robert Wilkinson and his wife Catherine Allix, daughter of John Peter Allix of

Swaffham Prior Swaffham Prior is a small village in East Cambridgeshire, England. Lying 5 miles west of Newmarket, Suffolk, Newmarket, and two miles south west of Burwell, Cambridgeshire, Burwell, the village is often paired with its neighbour Swaffham Bulbe ...

; the Rev. Charles Allix Wilkinson, the writer, and Isaac Herbert Wilkinson were his brothers, in a family of seven brothers and three sisters. He attended

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and was cricket captain there in 1828. He entered

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, in 1830, graduating B.A. in 1833 and M.A. in 1836. He was a Fellow of King's from 1832 to 1852, and bursar in 1846. Entering

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...

in 1835, he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1838. He was an original member of the

Philological Society The Philological Society, or London Philological Society, is the oldest learned society in Great Britain dedicated to the study of language as well as a registered charity. The current Society was established in 1842 to "investigate and promote ...

. Wilkinson was a magistrate and lieutenant-colonel of militia. He was

Lord of the Manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

of Graveley, Hertfordshire, through his wife Caroline Obert. He died in

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district of Hertfordshire, England. The town dates from at least the 7th century. It lies in the valley of the River Hiz at the north-eastern end of the Chiltern Hills ...

, Hertfordshire.

Cricketer

Wilkinson made his first-class debut in 1831 and appeared in one match as an unknown

handedness In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more Fine motor skill, dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dext ...

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

whose bowling style is unknown, playing for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He scored 51 runs with a highest score of 37 and took no

wicket In the sport of cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is either of the two sets of three Stump (cricket), stumps and two Bail (cricket), bails at each end of the Cricket pitch, pitch. The Fielding (cricket), fielding team's playe ...

Family

In 1852 Wilkinson married Caroline Obert, daughter of Vicomte Obert and his wife Margaret Parkins. They had a son, Edward Obert Hindley Wilkinson, an officer of the

60th Rifles The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United Sta ...

drowned after the

battle of Ingogo A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

in 1881. Their daughter Caroline Elizabeth married Charles Poyntz Stewart.

Rooksnest and the E. M. Forster connection

Wilkinson lived at Chesfield Park on the boundary between the parishes of Graveley and

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

. Nearby was a house on Weston Road, Stevenage, which he bought from another local family, the Howards. Between 1883 and 1893 Wilkinson let the house, known as Rooksnest, to the mother of the author

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly '' A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910) and '' A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous shor ...

. Lily Forster and her son had to leave, unwillingly, when the Poyntz Stewarts, to whom the property had passed, wished it vacated. Forster had written a piece about the house, the "Rooksnest memoir", by 1894 when he was 15 which mentions Wilkinson as landlord. ''

Howards End ''Howards End'' is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1910, about social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. ''Howards End'' is considered by many to be Forster's masterpiece. The book wa ...

'' (1910) was his novel about his childhood home; he continued to visit the house into the later 1940s, and he retained the furniture all his life. From 1914

Elizabeth Poston Elizabeth Poston (24 October 1905 – 18 March 1987) was an English composer, pianist and writer. Early life and career Poston was born in Highfield House in Pin Green, which is now the site of Hampson Park in Stevenage. In 1914 she moved wi ...

lived there: the Forsters had known the Poston family when they were the residents. The memoir was published with the

Penguin Modern Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the West ...

edition of ''Howards End''. Another memoir by Forster, from the 1940s and about West Hackhurst,

Abinger Hammer Abinger Hammer is a village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. It lies in the Vale of Holmesdale in the Surrey Hills National Landscape and is located on the A25 about east of Guildford and west of Dorking. The village is name ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

which was his home from 1925, returns to the associations of Rooksnest. Rooksnest, now called Rook's Nest House, had once been named Howards. It became a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 1976.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Robert Hindley 1811 births 1888 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Fellows of King's College, Cambridge 19th-century philologists English barristers English cricketers English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Cambridge University cricketers