Timothy Priestley (19 June 1734 – 23 April 1814) was an English Independent minister. The younger brother of Joseph Priestley, he was a collaborator in making electrical apparatus.
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Timothy Priestley (19 June 1734 – 23 April 1814) was an English Independent minister. The younger brother of Joseph Priestley, he was a collaborator in making electrical apparatus.
The second child of Jonas and Mary Priestley, was born at Fieldhead in the parish of Birstall, Yorkshire, on 19 June 1734. He was brought up by his grandfather, Joseph Swift, and sent to school at Batley. For some time he was employed in his father's business as a cloth-dresser. [1]
His elder brother Joseph Priestley, thought Timothy frivolous; but he received a religious direction from James Scott (1710-1783), who became minister of Upper Chapel, Heckmondwike in Yorkshire, in 1754. Scott in 1756 established a dissenting academy at Southfield, near Heckmondwike, and Timothy Priestley was the second young man who entered it as a student for the ministry. He got into trouble, however, by going out to preach without leave; and Joseph disparaged his training. [1]
Timothy Priestley's preaching was popular, and he was employed in mission work at Ilkeston, Derbyshire, and elsewhere. In 1760 he was ordained pastor of the congregation at Kipping (later Kipping Chapel, Thornton), near Bradford, Yorkshire: an uncomfortable settlement because the owner of the Kipping estate having ceased to be in sympathy with nonconformity. Early in 1766 Priestley became minister of Hunter's Croft congregational church, Manchester, succeeding to the congregation of Caleb Warhurst. His chapel was enlarged during his ministry, where he was reputed for preaching and also eccentricity in the pulpit. Priestley was accused of "irregularities" amounting to trading to increase his salary, for example participation in "the liquor business" and making packing-cases on Sunday nights (he said he never began till the clock struck twelve). [1] [2]
Priestley refused to join the petitions (1772-3) for relaxation of the Toleration Act, except on the condition that concealment of heresy should be made a capital offence. In 1774 he was in London, preaching at Whitefield's Tabernacle, Moorfields. In 1782 the two Priestleys were appointed to preach the "double lecture" (24 August) at Oldbury, Worcestershire; Joseph wished his brother to decline, and on his refusal to give way, himself withdrew, his place being taken by Habakkuk Crabb. [1]
Priestley's Manchester ministry terminated in his formal dismissal on 14 April 1784, only two hands being held up in his favour. He moved to Dublin, where he remained about two years. He then received a call to succeed Richard Woodgate (d. 28 June 1787) as minister of Jewin Street independent church, London. Here he remained till his death. [1]
Priestley died at Islington on 23 April 1814, and was buried at Bunhill Fields on 29 April. His funeral sermon was preached by George Burder.
Timothy Priestley made electrical machines for sale, under Joseph's directions, and constructed for his brother an electrical kite, 6 feet 4 inches wide, which folded up so as to be carried like a fishing-rod. [1] This kite was mentioned by Joseph in his correspondence with John Canton. [3] The electrical collaboration dated back to Joseph's vacations from Daventry Academy, when the brothers studied science together from encyclopedias, for example the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences of John Barrow. They worked on electrostatics, discharging electrical charges through iron. The machine design was for electrostatic purposes, and Timothy had lathe and other skills for the actual construction. [4]
A market for these machines was created by Joseph's History and Present State of Electricity (1767). [5] Design details were given in John Imison's The School of Arts (1785), [6] and later in the Encyclopædia Britannica . [7]
One such machine survived and was put on display in 1860 at Burlington House by James Yates, part of a display of Priestley memorabilia. It had been bequeathed by Dr. Robert Cappe to John Bostock. [8] Cappe's machine was bought for therapeutic purposes at Leeds General Infirmary, where William Hey supported the treatment; Timothy Priestley was paid £5 11s. 6d. for it. [9]
Priestley issued a periodical, The Christian's Magazine, or Gospel Repository, designed to counteract Unitarianism (three volumes, 1790-2); the first volume is dedicated to Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, a friend. It contained a biography of Scott, his tutor, which was reprinted in 1791. [1]
On his brother Joseph's death he preached at Jewin Street, 29 April 1804, and printed (1804) a funeral sermon, with appendix of anecdotes, the authenticity of some of which has been disputed. [1] The sermon was designed to vindicate his own Calvinistic Methodism. The elder John Aikin was the subject of one of these anecdotes, and the scene painted, which was disputed by John Aikin the son, has been likened to a Methodist conversion narrative. [10]
His advertised Animadversions on his brother's theological views do not seem to have been published. [1] Their differences are known from letters Timothy wrote to their Aunt Sarah. [11]
He published also: [1]
and a few single sermons.
Priestley was attacked by the polemicist William Huntington. [13] [14]
Priestley's wife Anne died in 1793 at age 47. [15] His son William (1768-1827) was independent minister at Fordingbridge, Hampshire. [1]
Richard Price was a Welsh moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French and American Revolutions. He was well-connected and fostered communication between many people, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, Mirabeau and the Marquis de Condorcet. According to the historian John Davies, Price was "the greatest Welsh thinker of all time".
Robert Robinson was an English Dissenter, influential Baptist and scholar who made a lifelong study of the antiquity and history of Christian Baptism. He was also author of the hymns "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and "Mighty God, while angels bless Thee", the former of which he wrote at age 22 after converting to Methodism. The latter was later set to music by Dr John Randall, Music Professor at Cambridge University.
John Simpson (1746–1812) was an English Unitarian minister and religious writer, known as a biblical critic. Some of his essays were very well known in the nineteenth century. Simpson was also known for his rejection of the literal existence of the devil, following on from writers like Arthur Ashley Sykes.
John Aikin (1713–1780) was an English Unitarian scholar and theological tutor, closely associated with Warrington Academy, a prominent dissenting academy.
George Walker was a versatile English Dissenter, known as a mathematician, theologian, Fellow of the Royal Society, and activist.
John Prior Estlin (1747–1817) was an English Unitarian minister. He was noted as a teacher, and for his connections in literary circles.
John Shower (1657–1715) was a prominent English nonconformist minister.
Charles Wellbeloved was an English Unitarian divine and archaeologist.
David Bradberry, sometimes called Bradbury (1736–1803), was an English nonconformist minister.
Newcome Cappe, was an English unitarian divine. He served as the pastor of the York Unitarian Chapel, located in York, England. Cappe published various sermons and after his death his second wife, Catharine Cappe published many more.
John Wiche (1718–1794) was an English Baptist minister.
John Towers was an English Independent minister.
John Kentish was an English Unitarian minister.
John Collett Ryland (1723–1792) was an English Baptist minister and author.
John Butterworth (1727–1803) was an English Baptist minister.
John Clayton (1754–1843) was an English Independent minister. He became known for his conservative social views, after the Priestley Riots.
The Old Jewry Meeting-house was a meeting-house for an English Presbyterian congregation, built around 1701, in the Old Jewry, a small street in the centre of the City of London. Its first minister was John Shower. In 1808 new premises were built in Jewin Street.
Edward Burn (1762–1837) was an English cleric, known as a Calvinist Methodist preacher and polemical writer.
Joseph Benson was an early English Methodist minister, one of the leaders of the movement during the time of Methodism's founder John Wesley.
John Edwards (1768–1808) was an English nonconformist minister and political radical. He is best known as the successor of Joseph Priestley at the New Meeting House, Birmingham.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Priestley, Timothy". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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