Who was Joseph Priestley?

Joseph Priestley in about 1765

This blog will place six years of the life of Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) in the context of both his life as a whole and the times in which he lived. The years in question are 1767-1773 and he spent them in Leeds, a town in the English county of Yorkshire. Priestley was born at Fieldhead in the nearby town of Birstall and he came to Leeds to become minister of the Presbyterian chapel of Mill Hill. He recorded in his autobiography:


At Leeds I continued six years very happy with a liberal, friendly, and harmonious congregation, to whom my services, (of which I was not sparing) were very acceptable. Here I had no unreasonable prejudices to contend with, so that I had full scope for every kind of exertion; and I can truly say that I always considered the office of a Christian minister as the most honourable of any upon earth, and in the studies proper to it I always took the greatest pleasure. [Joseph Priestley, Autobiography of Joseph Priestley, with an introduction by Jack Lindsay, Bath: Adams & Dart, 1970, p 92]

Joseph Priestley is remembered for his role as a minister and the development of his theology from Presbyterian to Unitarian. Unitarians believed in the humanity of Jesus Christ and in the unity of God instead of the Trinity. But he is remembered for many other things including being a radical political thinker, a far thinking educationalist, a scientist of great importance and a creator of libraries. He was praised by French Revolutionaries, he was hated by many in the English establishment and his words were used in the American Declaration of Independence. His days ended - pretty much in exile - in the United States in Northumberland, Pennsylvania.

The Leeds years are particularly interesting because they were productive ones for Priestley in most of the key areas of his achievement. They ended when he became librarian and companion to Lord Shelburne and removed with his wife and family to Calne in Wiltshire.