Gilbert Wakefield (1756 - 1801), scholar and controversialist, born at Nottingham, educated at Cambridge, took orders, but becoming a Unitarian renounced them and acted as classical tutor in various Unitarian academies.
He was a strong defender of the French Revolution, and was imprisoned for two years for writing a seditious pamphlet. He published editions of various classical writers, and among his theological writings are Early Christian Writers on the Person of Christ (1784), An Examination of Paine's Age of Reason (1794), and Silva Critica (1789-95), illustrations of the Scriptures.
This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J.M. Dent & sons; New York, E.P. Dutton.