Jeremiah Joyce

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the member of the Illinois Senate, see Jeremiah E. Joyce.
Jeremiah Joyce, 1794 engraving

Jeremiah Joyce (1763–1816) was an English Unitarian minister and writer. He achieved notoriety as one of the group of political activists arrested in May 1794.

Early life

He was born 24 February 1763, the son of Jeremiah Joyce (1718–1788), a master woolcomber at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and his wife Hannah Somersett (1726–1818);[1] his place of birth was Cheshunt,[2] or Mildred's Court, Poultry, London, Hannah's family home. He attended the nonconformist school in Cheshunt run by the Rev. Samuel Worsley, who had attended Daventry Academy.[3][4]

In 1777 Joyce was apprenticed to a glazier, John Willis, of Strand, London.[5] Willis was a member of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass, and founded a building company, later Sykes & Son, that still exists (as of 2022). He did work on St Clement Danes church and the Middle Temple; and in 1778 took on his own son John as apprentice.[6][7] After seven years, Joyce completed the apprenticeship, going to business on his own account as a journeyman.[5]

Joyce worked in

New College, Hackney.[2] He was one of its first intake of students in 1786, with Joseph Lomas Towers, son of Joseph Towers.[9] He became proficient in mathematics and Latin.[2]

Stanhope household and activism

In 1790 Joyce was appointed to Lord Mahon, eldest son of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope. His duties in the household extended to the younger children, and he acted as secretary to Stanhope.[10]

Stanhope and Joyce shared radical political views: Stanhope by the end of 1789 was chairing the

Hester Stanhope, age 14, to mind turkeys on a village green.[11][12]

Joyce became a member of the

Tom Paine's lawyer; John Cartwright; Thomas Holcroft; Stewart Kyd; and others including a Mr Banks tentatively identified as Thomas Banks.[13] He was involved in the distribution of Paine's works, to Samuel Fox at Derby and via Stanhope's residence.[14]

By 1791, Joyce had joined the Unitarian Society (fuller name Unitarian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Practice of Virtue, to which was added "by the distribution of books"). In the following years he was involved in publications, and the Society had as associate Joseph Johnson.[15] He joined the Essex Street Chapel congregation, and formed a long-standing relationship with Theophilus Lindsey, its founder. When Lindsey retired from the chapel in 1793, Joyce for a period was minister there with John Disney, who had shared the position with Lindsey from 1783. Joyce took the afternoon services, continuing until 1804 when Thomas Belsham took over the chapel.[16][17][18]

Ahead of the

Scottish Martyrs to Liberty and Maurice Margarot of the LCS, Joyce on 28 March 1794 proposed an address of support from the SCI. It contained the sentiment "A full and fair Representation of the People of Great Britain we seek, with all the ardour of men and Britons".[19] From 4 April the SCI and LCS worked together, to nominate delegates to a convention of the "Friends of Liberty". Joyce was chosen, with Holcroft, Kyd, William Sharp and Thomas Wardle.[20]

Treason charge and acquittal

A dozen activists were arrested in May, followed by the passing of the

King's Messengers. Shortly after that an ambiguous letter from Joyce to John Horne Tooke of the SCI, written within hours of Hardy's arrest. was intercepted by the authorities. John Thelwall was arrested on 13 May, at Beaufort Buildings, Strand, London where he was lecturing. Horne Tooke himself was arrested on 16 May.[21][22][23][24] Others detained in the sweep included the silversmith John Baxter, successor to Margarot at the LCS; the businessman John Richter, LCS and an SCI associate; and Bonney and Kyd of the LCI.[25][26][27]

On 14 May 1794 Joyce was at Stanhope's house

Privy Council by about 1 pm that day.[28] He refused to answer any questions without a lawyer, which he was not allowed.[29]

Joyce remained in custody until 19 May when, with others, he was committed to the

Archibald Macdonald, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, both of whom had been present at the Privy Council hearings.[33]

After the acquittal of his co-defendants Hardy and Horne Tooke, charges against Joyce were dropped. He had suffered 23 weeks imprisonment.[29][31] While Joyce was confined, supporters printed a book under his name. It was a sermon from earlier in the year, but contained also an appendix consisting of his examination by the Privy Council, and that of Bonney who was released at the same time. After his release it was being distributed by Arthur Aikin.[34][35] His own work on the legal process, An Account of Mr. Joyce's Arrest for "treasonable Practices". His Examination ... With Remarks on the Speeches of Mr. Windham, &c., appeared in 1795.[36]

Later life

Joyce was released on 1 December 1794, and was welcomed back to Chevening, the village being lit up; if not by the rector, the Rev. Samuel Preston, chaplain to John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham who was Lord Privy Seal.[37][38] He was quick to pay a visit to William Shepherd at Gatacre.[39]

Stanhope built Joyce a house in the grounds at Chevening. Joyce lived there for about four years, joined by his wife Elizabeth in 1796. He moved away in 1799. The troubled Stanhope household, where the father's insistence on home education was contentious, started to break up over the period. Daughter Lady Hester in the end moved out to live at Walmer with her uncle William Pitt the Younger, the Prime Minister, in 1803 according to John Ehrman; where he reportedly told her Tom Paine was "quite in the right" but he couldn't risk revolution.[40][41]

At this period, Theophilus Lindsey had hopes to find Joyce a full place as Unitarian minister; but he found that impossible, as he explained to

Rochemont Barbauld as minister of a small Unitarian congregation at Rosslyn Hill.[2][44]

In 1799 Joyce took up a position as tutor to the sons of Benjamin Travers the elder (1752–1818), treasurer to the Gravel Pit Chapel and father of Benjamin Travers, a grocer in the sugar trade. He was in business with William Smith, who was an SCI member.[45][46][47] The firm, later known as Joseph Travers & Sons, was then trading as Smith, Travers & Kemble.[48]

For many years, Joyce was the secretary of the Unitarian Society. At the end of Lindsey's life, Joyce was close to him. When Lindsey died in 1808, Joyce wrote an anonymous obituary, the "Brief account" in

The Monthly Magazine; and took the lead from William Frend's obituary, which concentrated on Lindsey's religious involvement, to burn much of Lindsey's political correspondence, particular that dealing with the American revolution.[49][50]

Works

Joyce wrote a number of popular educational works on science and mathematics. He also contributed articles to Rees's Cyclopædia (1802–1819).

As editor

  • A Narrative of the Sufferings of T. F. Palmer and W. Skirving, During a Voyage to New South Wales, 1794, on Board the Surprize Transport.[51] Joyce prepared this work on the Scottish Martyrs from a manuscript by Thomas Fyshe Palmer brought from New South Wales by John White.[52] Muir, Palmer and Skirving had serious criticisms of Capt. Patrick Campbell of the Surprize, but also of Margarot, included by Joyce in his introduction.[53]

Joyce was largely responsible for the editing of two rival encyclopedic works bearing the names of others,

British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1809). These works shared a substantial portion of their texts.[55]

Instructional

Systematic Education (1816) was a collaboration with Lant Carpenter and William Shepherd.[2]

Family

Joyce married in 1796 Elizabeth Harding, niece of Captain George Fagg (Slouney), who as a privateer of the Anglo-French War (1778–1783) ran the blockade of Gibraltar in 1780, commanding the Buck of Folkestone.[29][58] The youngest of his six children, Hannah, born the year before Joyce's death, was fostered by his friend William Shepherd. She later married William Ridyard.[29]

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  2. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15152. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  4. ^ "Worsley, Samuel (Surman index id: 30254)". surman.english.qmul.ac.uk.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  6. ^ "The Brief History of a London Building Company Spanning Four Centuries" (PDF). sykesandsonltd.com. 2018.
  7. ^ "Sykes & Son Limited". sykesandsonltd.com.
  8. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  11. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/96833. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  12. ISBN 0304314358
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-7185-1445-7
    .
  14. ISBN 0-7618-1484-1
    .
  15. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  16. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16722. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  17. ISBN 978-1-57978-617-5
    .
  18. ^
    ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  19. ISBN 0-7618-1484-1
    .
  20. ISBN 0-7618-1484-1
    .
  21. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12291. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  22. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27167. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  23. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27545. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  24. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7185-1445-7
    .
  25. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/42297. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  26. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/63602. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  27. ^ Goldsmith, Oliver; Rivers, David (1811). The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of George the Second. To which is Added A Continuation from the Death of George the Second to the Celebration of the Jubillee of His Majesty King George the Third by D. Rivers. A. Whellier. p. 7.
  28. ^
    ISBN 0-7618-1484-1
    .
  29. ^ a b c d e f Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Joyce, Jeremiah" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 30. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  30. ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1897). "Shepherd, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 52. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  31. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8047-1184-5
    .
  32. ^ The Analytical Review, Or History of Literature, Domestic and Foreign, on an Enlarged Plan. 1796. p. 418.
  33. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9032. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  34. ^ Joyce, Jeremiah (1794). A Sermon Preached on Sunday, February the 23rd, 1794. Author, and sold.
  35. ISBN 9781843837428
    .
  36. ^ Joyce, Jeremiah (1795). An Account of Mr. Joyce's Arrest for "treasonable Practices". His Examination ... With Remarks on the Speeches of Mr. Windham, &c. Ridgway.
  37. ISBN 9781843837428
    .
  38. ^ "Preston, Samuel (1749–1803) (CCEd Person ID 100167)". The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540–1835. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  39. ISBN 978-1-317-88862-8
    .
  40. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  41. ISBN 978-1-84529-142-6
    .
  42. ^ The Enquirer (1801). A letter in answer to one suspected to have been written by a stranger, assisted by the Jacobin Priests of the West Riding. By the Enquirer [i.e. W. Atkinson, M.A.]. To which is annexed, An address to the inhabitants of Leeds. By the Freeholder. And a postscript to the inhabitants of Bradford. By a Clergyman. Bradford: R. Sedgwick. p. 45.
  43. ^ Cushing, William (1885). Initials and Pseudonyms: A Dictionary of Literary Disguises. Crowell. p. 92.
  44. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  45. ISBN 9781843837428
    .
  46. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27667. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  47. ^ "Smith, William (1756-1835), of Eagle House, Clapham Common, Surr. and Parndon, Essex. History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
  48. ^ "Details of Firm Joseph Travers & Sons,Legacies of British Slavery". www.ucl.ac.uk.
  49. ISBN 9781843833444
    .
  50. ^ The Monthly Magazine. R. Phillips. 1808. pp. 445–452.
  51. ^ Palmer, Thomas Fyshe (1797). A Narrative of the Sufferings of T.F. Palmer and W. Skirving, During a Voyage to New South Wales, 1794, on Board the Surprize Transport. Benjamin Flower.
  52. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  53. ^ Howell, Thomas Bayly (1817). A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Year 1820. (etc.). Vol. XXIII. Longman. p. 1413.
  54. ^ a b c The Monthly Repository (and review). 1817. p. 706.
  55. ISBN 978-1-351-15506-9
    .
  56. ^ Joyce, Jeremiah (1808). System of Practical Arithmetic, applicable to the present state of trade. London: Richard Phillips.
  57. ^ Joyce, Jeremiah (1810). A Familiar Introduction to the Arts and Sciences for the Use of Schools and Young Persons. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown.
  58. ^ Piccadilly Series #95. Henry Sotheran Ltd. p. 48.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeremiah_Joyce&oldid=1173482350"