Simon Wilkin was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

  publisher literary scholar and naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

 whose main interest was entomology

Entomology

Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...

.

He was the second of the three children of William Wilkin Wilkin (1762–1799), a Norfolk gristmill

Gristmill

The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

er, and Cecilia Lucy Wilkin (d. 1796), daughter of William Jacomb of London. When his father died Wilkin moved to Norwich

Norwich

Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...

 to live with his guardian, Joseph Kinghorn, who educated him. He was a close friend of John Curtis

John Curtis (entomologist)

John Curtis was an English entomologist and illustrator.-Biography:Curtis was born in Norwich and learned his engraving skills in the workshop of his father, Charles Morgan Curtis...

, William Kirby , John Burrell

John Burrell (entomologist)

John Burrell was an English entomologist.The Reverend John Burrell, artium magister was the vicar of the Norfolk parish of Letheringsett. He published a Prodromus lepidopterorum Britannicorum and several papers on the moths, beetles and true bugs of Norfolk. He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society...

 and William Spence

William Spence

William Guthrie Spence , Australian trade union leader and politician, played a leading role in the formation of both Australia's largest union, the Australian Workers Union, and the Australian Labor Party.-Early life:...

 who shared his interest in entomology.

Wilkin lost his inherited wealth in 1811 when the paper mill

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

 in which he was a partner failed, and in 1832 his guardian's death was another financial disaster. Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 forced the sale of his insect collection to the Zoological Society of London

Zoological Society of London

The Zoological Society of London is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats...

. He was then able to establish a printing and publishing business in Norwich. He published the work of Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau was an English social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist....

, Amelia Opie

Amelia Opie

Amelia Opie, née Alderson , was an English author who published numerous novels in the Romantic Period of the early 19th century, through 1828.-Life and work:...

, George Borrow

George Borrow

George Henry Borrow was an English author who wrote novels and travelogues based on his own experiences around Europe. Over the course of his wanderings, he developed a close affinity with the Romani people of Europe. They figure prominently in his work...

, and William Taylor

William Taylor

William Taylor was a British scholar, polyglot, and translator of German romantic literature.-Early life:He was born in Norwich, East Anglia, England on 7 November 1765, the only child of William Taylor , a wealthy Norwich merchant with European trade connections, by his wife Sarah , second...

. In 1825 he married Emma, daughter of John Culley of Costessey, and they had two daughters and a son and in 1834 they moved to London.

Wilkin compiled an edition of Sir Thomas Browne (1836; reissued in 1852) for which he researched Browne's correspondence in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 and Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

.

He was a Fellow

Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...

 of the Linnean Society, and a member of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh