{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use British English|date=October 2014}} '''Joseph Curr''' (1793 – 29 June 1847) was an English Roman Catholic priest and author who was called a "martyr of charity" for his work in Leeds in the typhus epidemic of 1847.<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle=Joseph Curr}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=White |first1=Geoffrey |title=John Curr (1756-1823): Sheffield's forgotten railway pioneer and why we should remember him |url=https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/john-curr-1756-1823-sheffields-forgotten-railway-pioneer-and-why-we-should-remember-him-3992922 |access-date=18 April 2023 |work=The Star |date=19 January 2023}}</ref>

== Biography ==

The son of civil engineer John Curr and Hannah Curr (''née'' Wilson),<ref name="hadfield">{{cite book |last1=Hadfield |first1=Charles |title=A History of S. Marie's Mission and Church, Norfolk Row, Sheffield |date=1889 |publisher=Pawson and Brailford Printers |location=High Street and Mulberry Street |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efzCImWdin0C |access-date=17 April 2023 |pages=60–61}}</ref><ref name="furphy">{{cite book |last1=Furphy |first1=Samuel |title=Edward M. Curr and the Tide of History |date=2013 |publisher=ANU Press |isbn=978-1-922144-71-3 |pages=1–4}}</ref> he was born in Sheffield on 14 April 1793, baptized by his godfather, Richard Rimmer, at the Catholic Chapel in Norfolk Row on 6 May. He had one brother, John, and six sisters.<ref name="furphy" />

Curr was educated at Crook Hall, County Durham, and in 1808 went to the seminary at Ushaw College. After being ordained he served in a number of different locations:<ref name="hadfield" />

* Old St. Chad mission in Rook Street, Manchester (until 1820) * St. Augustine mission in Granby Row, Manchester (1820–1822) * Stockton-on-Tees (1822–1826)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Payne |first1=John Orlebar |title=Old English Catholic Missions |date=1889 |publisher=Burns & Oates |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3XkHAQAAIAAJ |access-date=18 April 2023}}</ref> * Ashton in Makerfield (1826–1830) * La Trappe Abbey in France (1830-?) * Ushaw (?-1833) * Callaby Castle in Northumberland (1833–1837) * Sheffield mission (1837–1839) * St. Alban's mission, Blackburn (1839–1842) * Whitby (1842–1846)

In 1847, St. Ann's in Leeds was suffering from a shortage of Catholic priests, due to an epidemic; Curr volunteered to serve there, where he died from typhus on 29 June 1847. He was buried at St. Patrick's on York road, along with the other four priests who died in the epidemic.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mayhall |first1=John |title=The Annals and History of Leeds, and Other Places in the County of York From the Earliest Period to the Present Time |date=1860 |publisher=Harvard University |page=543}}</ref>

== Works ==

Curr was a prolific writer, particularly in his feud with the local Bible Association.<ref name="hadfield" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sha |first1=Ian J |title=High Calvinists in Action: Calvinism and the City - Manchester and London, C. 1810-1860 |date=2003 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=9780191530586 |page=105}}</ref> Among his notable opponents were {{ill|Melville Horne|fr}} and William Roby, whom Curr debated on topics including his opposition to lay Christians reading and interpreting the Bible themselves.<ref name="connolly">{{cite journal |last1=Connolly |first1=Gerard |title=The Transubstantiation of Myth: towards a New Popular History of Nineteenth-Century Catholicism in England |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |date=25 March 2011 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=95–101 |access-date=18 April 2023 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-ecclesiastical-history/article/abs/transubstantiation-of-myth-towards-a-new-popular-history-of-nineteenthcentury-catholicism-in-england/EC9B1A7F37B1B96823C9DD20653F6C28}}</ref>

His principal works include:

* ''A Discourse delivered at St. Augustine's Chapel, Manchester, at the funeral of the Rev. Rowland Broomhead'' * ''The Instructor's Assistant'' * ''Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin'' * ''Spiritual Retreat'' (adapted from Bourdaloue) * ''Familiar Instructions in the Faith and Morality of the Catholic Church'' * ''A Letter to Sir Oswald Mosley, Baronet, President of the Manchester and Salford Auxiliary Bible Society'' * ''An address to the Public occasioned by the recent letters of the Rev. Melville Home and the Rev. Nathaniel Gilbert on the subject of bible associations'' * ''Catholicism: or the old rule of faith vindicated from the attack of W. Rob''

==References== {{reflist}} ;Attribution *{{Catholic|wstitle=Joseph Curr}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Curr, Joseph}} Category:1793 births Category:1847 deaths Category:19th-century English Roman Catholic priests Category:Clergy from Sheffield Category:Deaths from typhus in the United Kingdom Category:Alumni of Ushaw College