JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, LL.D., F.R.S.

 JOSEPH PRIESTLEY was born on the 24th (13th old style) March, 1733, at Fieldhead, about six miles from Leeds.  His father was Jonas Priestley, and his mother was the only child of Joseph Swift, a farmer at Shafton, near Wakefield.  Priestley was the eldest of four sons and two daughters. His mother died in 1739, and his father married again six years later, and there were three daughters by the second marriage. His mother being dead, he was taken in hand by an aunt, Mrs. Keighley, who sent him to school. 

While at the Grammar School he learned Annet's shorthand, and corresponded with the author.  He went to the academy at Daventry (formerly under Dr. Doddridge) in September, 1752, and left in 1755.  Here he took the heterodox side of almost every question, the students being equally divided on theological subjects, which were continually being discussed.  In 1755, he went to Needham Market, a village near Ipswich, as assistant to Mr. Meadows, and was paid £30 a year.  He was too far advanced in his views to suit his hearers, and the attendance fell off.  He was glad to receive an invitation to Nantwich, whither he went in 1758, and took charge of the Congregation there.  Here he wrote his English Grammar, in 176I, and kept a small school to eke out his income.  In the same year he went to Warrington Academy, having been appointed "Tutor in the languages," but he would have preferred mathematics and natural philosophy.  Here he married Mary, daughter of Isaac Wilkinson, an ironmaster near Wrexham.  He employed a large part of his leisure in experiments in electricity, and kept up a correspondence with Dr. Franklin and other scientific men in London.

With a salary of £100 a year, and a house it was difficult to make provision for a family.    

There being no prospect of an improvement, and his wife having bad health, he was glad to accept an invitation to Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, and he went there in September, 1767. Here he "continued six years very happy with a liberal, friendly, and harmonious

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Congregation, to whom my services were very acceptable." He continued his experiments on electricity and air, and read a paper on the subject in 1772 before the Royal Society, for which he received their gold medal.  While at Leeds he accepted an offer to go a voyage to the South Seas with Captain Cook, but was objected to by some clergymen in the Board of Longitude on account of his religious principles.  His friendship with Theophilus Lindsey (then Vicar of Catterick), now began, and continued to the end of his life.

             Priestley left Leeds in 1773, and for seven years lived in the family of the Earl'of Shelburne (afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne), as literary companion, spending the summer at Calne, in Wiltshire, and a great part of the winter in London.  On August 1st, 1774, he made his discovery of oxygen, and in the same year went a tour through Flanders, Holland, Germany, and Paris with Lord Shelburne.

              His engagement came to an end in 1780, and he went to live in Birmingham in the autumn. He preached at the New Meeting on December 31st for the first time after being elected  successor to Mr. Hawkes.  His Sundays were fully occupied with teaching and preaching. His week-days were devoted to his philosophical pursuits and theological writings. 

A variety of causes aroused the opposition of the clergy of the Church of England to Priestley and the dissenters, and they were charged with trying to overturn both Church and State.  The story of the I4th July, 179I, and three following days, has been often told: about the inflammatory hand­bills, the dinner at Dadley's Hotel, the infuriated mob crying "Church and King," the burning and destruction of Meeting Houses and, private houses belonging to Dissenters, and the flight of

Dr. Priestley.  He eventually reached London, and succeeded his friend, Dr. Price, at Gravel Pit Chapel, Hackney.  In April, 1794, he went to America, and settled in Northumberland, about 130 miles north-west of Philadelphia, and there he died, on the 6th of February, 1804.

          The portrait, facing the title page, is from the engraving by Holloway, after the painting by Artaud, made just before Priestley went to America.  The portrait on the cover is from the medallion by Wedgwood.

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