WILKIN8, Ross, jurist, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., Feb. 19, 1799, son of Gen. John Wilkins and Catherine (Stevenson) Wilkins, grandson of John and Catherine (Rowan) Wilkins, greatgrandson of John and Rachael (McFarland) Wilkins, and great-great-grandson of Robert Wilkins, a native of Glamorgan county, Wales—and descended from Robert de Wintona (Wilcolyne), Lord of the Manor Languain-—who settled in Donegal, Pa., in 1694, and married in 1702, Elizabeth Ross. The first John Wilkins (1708-41) was an Indian trader and lieutenant of colonial troops in the Indian wars. In the Cresap war he was taken prisoner and lodged in an unsanitary jail in Annapolis contracting there a malady of which he died. His son, Capt. John Wilkins (1733-1810), was also an Indian trader. He was living at Carlisle, Pa., at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, and raising a company of soldiers, equipped and maintained it, and commanded it as captain. He was made colonel after Valley Forge. He was an ardent Presbyterian and gave liberally to that church both in Carlisle and in Pittsburgh, where he lived after 1783. He left among other writings a manuscript autobiography which is often quoted as descriptive of early days of Pittsburgh. He was a member of the convention for Bedford county in 1776, associate judge of Allegheny county; member of supreme council 1790; chief burgess, commissioner of public buildings, and county treasurer during 1794-1808. John Wilkins, Jr., (1761-1816), the father of Ross Wilkins, volunteered as surgeon’s mate at the age of sixteen for the Revolutionary war. He was quartermaster-general, U. S. A., during 1796-1812, when he resigned to attend to his business afiairs. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and is said to have been the largest land owner in Pennsylvania. Ross Wilkins came from a family of lawyers, judges, soldiers and statesmen, of whom his uncle William Wilkins (q.v.), was the most distinguished. He studied at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., being a classmate of Pres. James Buchanan, and was graduated in 1817. After studying law in Pittsburgh, he was admitted to the bar. At the age of twenty-one he was elected prosecuting attorney for two years. In 1832 he was appointed by Pres. Jackson, one of the territorial judges of Michigan, and removing to Detroit, held the ofiice until the territory was admitted to the Union in January, 1837, when he was appointed U. S. district judge for the district then comprising the whole state, and held the office until the state was divided into two districts, when he became judge for the eastern district. His colleagues were among the most distinguished lawyers and leading citizens identified with the formative period of the state of Michigan, including such men as Solomon Sibley, Lewis Cass, William Woodbridge, Stevens T. Mason, first governor of Michigan; George Morell, and David Irwin. During the year 1836 he was recorder of Detroit, discharging the duties of that office in addition -to those of the federal court. He retired from the bench in 1870. He was a delegate to the convention of 1836, and was largely influential in securing the admission of Michigan into the Union. He was one of the first regents of the University of Michigan and always gave freely of his time and means to all movements of public interest, political, religious or educational. His public services covered the most strenuous period in the history of the commonwealth, the passing of a territory to statehood and throughout all the shifting events, he maintained the dual position of a progressive citizen and an impartial judge. He was a man of generous impulses, devoted to his family and true in his friendships. Judge Wilkins was married May 13, 1823, to Maria, daughter of John Duncan, formerly of County Terry, Ireland, and granddaughter of the Earl of Fife. Of his eight children all but three died young; those surviving were: Jane, who married Capt. Thomas Brent, U. S. A.; William Duncan (see below); and Maria Duncan, who married George Douglas Tracy. He died in Detroit, May 17, 1872.
