Born probably about 1560, Wilson was educated apparently at
Stamford School, and matriculated at
St John's College, Cambridge, on 26 November 1575. In 1583 he was elected on
Lord Burghley's nomination to a scholarship there. He graduated B.A. in 1583 at St. John's, then migrated to
Trinity Hall, where he graduated M.A. in 1587. For fifteen years, according to his own account, he studied
civil law at Cambridge. In 1594 he obtained a letter from Burghley recommending his election as Fellow of Trinity Hall. The recommendation was unsuccessful, and Wilson turned to travel. In 1596, Wilson was in Italy and Germany. He remained faithful to the Cecils, and during the later years of Elizabeth's reign he was employed as a foreign intelligencer. In December 1601 he was at
Florence, on negotiations with the
Duke of Ferrara, the Venetians, and other Italian states. The main object of his residence in Italy during 1601–2 was to discover Spanish and papal plans against England. He returned to England during the winter, and was at
Greenwich on 12 June 1603; and then early in 1604 was sent to reside as consul in Spain. He was at
Bayonne in February 1603–4, and remained in Spain until the arrival of the
Earl of Nottingham and
Sir Charles Cornwallis as ambassadors in 1605. On his return to England, Wilson entered the service of
Sir Robert Cecil, who leased to him a house adjoining his own, "Britain's Burse", in Durham Place,
Strand, London. He worked on supervising the building of Salisbury's house in Durham Place and also at
Hatfield, near which he received from Cecil, now Lord Salisbury, the manor of
Hoddesdon. In 1605 he was returned to parliament for
Newtown, Isle of Wight; he took notes of its proceedings on matters including
scutages and the "
post-nati" for the government. He also kept the minutes of the proceedings of the
committee for the Union of England and Scotland, and made a collection of the objections likely to be urged against the union in parliament. About 1606, when
Sir Thomas Lake stepped down, Salisbury (as Cecil had become) obtained for Wilson the post of Keeper of the Records at
Whitehall Palace. He also obtained the clerkship of imports, but lost it when
Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk became treasurer in 1614. As Keeper of the Records, Wilson's main difficulty was with secretaries of state and other officials, who refused to deliver to him public documents to which he considered the state entitled; and with highly placed borrowers who failed to return documents. Among the latter was
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, and in 1615 Wilson protested against Cotton's appointment as Keeper of the Exchequer Records, fearing that records would find their way into Cotton's private collection. When
Ralph Starkey acquired the papers of Secretary
William Davison, Wilson procured a warrant for their seizure, and on 14 August 1619 secured a sackful, containing forty-five bundles of manuscripts. Wilson was an original subscriber to the
Virginia Company, and followed discoveries in the
East Indies. He petitioned for a grant of 2000 acres in
Ulster in 1618, and drew up a scheme for the military government of Ireland. He vainly petitioned the king to be made
Master of Requests, and attempted unsuccessfully to become Master of a Cambridge college. Wilson was knighted at Whitehall on 20 July 1618, and in September of that was selected to interrogate
Walter Ralegh. After Ralegh's death Wilson urged the transference of his manuscripts to the state paper office, took his "mathematical and sea-instruments" for the Navy Board, and drew up a catalogue of his books, which he presented to the king. Wilson was buried at
St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on 17 July 1629. ==Works==