Thomas Wills

Thomas Wills (1740-1802) was from Cornwall originally, and graduated from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1760, where he became friends with Thomas Haweis.  He entered the church and was appointed to Cornwall.  In 1772 he became acquainted with the Countess of Huntingdon, married her niece, and in 1778 became one of her chaplains, serving at Trevecca and Brighton.  He was cited for his irregular preaching at the Spa-Fields Chapel in 1781, and shortly thereafter resigned from the church and became a Dissenting minister at Spa-Fields, still basically under the Countess of Huntingdon, though.  Differences between the two developed, however, and he eventually left her services and Spa-Fields in 1788.  He continued to preach in several chapels in London, such as Silver Street and Orange Street and in Islington chapel.  He was a staunch Calvinistic evangelical and a very popular preacher.  He left Silver Street in 1800 and retired to Cornwall.  The DNB says that as a popular preacher, Wills was second only to Whitefield, and his preaching attracted great crowds.  He was the author of several works, including Letters from the late Rev. William Romaine to a Friend.