Matthew Wilson

Matthew Wilson (January 15, 1731 – March 30, 1790) was an American patriot, pastor, surgeon, educator, and intelligence agent. A Presbyterian minister based in Lewes, Delaware, he was an ardent supporter of American independence and served in the Continental Army as a surgeon and intelligence agent. Wilson was also a founder of the Medical Society of Delaware and has been recognized as one of Delaware's most prominent citizens during the colonial period.

Biography Wilson was the son of James and Jean Wilson, immigrants from northern Ireland. He was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on January 15, 1731. (Some sources list his date of birth as 1729 or 1730.) Sources conflict on whether he was born in East Nottingham Township or New London. Wilson studied multiple fields and was "one of the best-educated men in the American colonies", becoming both a licensed preacher and physician. When he was 23 years old, he was named a languages teacher at the New London Academy.

Wilson was ordained as a minister in 1755 and also became a physician and surgeon, having decided to study medicine under Alexander McDowell in Philadelphia as he thought the income he would have received solely from preaching was insufficient. After briefly beginning his career as a preacher in Virginia, he became the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Lewes, Delaware, in April 1755, a town where he lived until his death. As an agent, he provided the Continental Congress with information about British activities in his county and ships that sailed by the Delaware Cape. Wilson was published in The American Museum, the American Magazine, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, the United States Magazine and The Pennsylvania Journal. Wilson died on March 30, 1790, in Lewes, and was buried at the Lewes Presbyterian cemetery. He is recognized as having been one of the most "outstanding colonial citizens" of Delaware. Neill noted Wilson to be, "Indulgent to the negroes to whom he was master, quick to aid the poor and distressed, affable in the presence of the young, courteous among his equals, acquainted with the world's progress in the arts and sciences, and a humble disciple of Christ".