{{Short description|English Independent minister}} '''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. [[File:Timothy Priestley Holloway.jpg|thumb|Timothy Priestley, 1792 engraving by Thomas Holloway.]]
==Life== 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.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Priestley, Timothy}}</ref>
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.<ref name="DNB"/>
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).<ref name="DNB"/><ref>John Stoughton, ''History of religion in England from the opening of the Long Parliament to the end of the eighteenth century'' vol. 6 (1882), p. 343; [https://archive.org/stream/historyofreligionin06stou#page/342/mode/2up archive.org.]</ref>
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.<ref name="DNB"/>
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.<ref name="DNB"/>
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.
==Scientific apparatus== 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.<ref name="DNB"/> This kite was mentioned by Joseph in his correspondence with John Canton.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert E. Schofield|title=The Enlightenment of Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Work from 1733 to 1773|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WiMw7zBNGqIC&pg=PA142|access-date=28 October 2012|date=1 October 1997|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-02510-0|page=142}}</ref> 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.<ref>Tony Rail (editor), ''Joseph Priestley's Melanchton to Martin Luther'', Kastell (2010), pp. xiii–xiv; [http://www26.us.archive.org/stream/JosephPriestleysMelanchtonToMartinLuther/MelanchtonToMartinLuther#page/n17/mode/2up archive.org.]</ref> right|thumb|Priestley electrical machine. Illustration in the first edition of Joseph Priestley's ''Familiar Introduction to Electricity'' (1768) A market for these machines was created by Joseph's ''History and Present State of Electricity'' (1767).<ref>Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes (editors), ''Joseph Priestley: Scientist, Philosopher and Theologian'' (2008), Oxford University Press, pp. 53–4.</ref> Design details were given in John Imison's ''The School of Arts'' (1785),<ref>{{cite book|author=John Imison|title=The school of arts; or, an introduction to useful knowledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zh4AAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA49|access-date=28 October 2012|year=1796|page=49}}</ref> and later in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopædia Britannica; or A dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZsgnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA661|access-date=28 October 2012|year=1823|publisher=Printed for Archibald Constable and Company|page=661}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mary Ellen Bowden|author2=Lisa Rosner|title=Joseph Priestley, Radical Thinker: A Catalogue to Accompany the Exhibit at the Chemical Heritage Foundation Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Death of Joseph Priestley: 23 August 2004 to 29 July 2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwjrZ8qygeEC&pg=PA38|access-date=28 October 2012|date=1 July 2005|publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation|isbn=978-0-941901-38-3|page=38}}</ref> Cappe's machine was bought for therapeutic purposes at Leeds General Infirmary, where William Hey supported the treatment; Timothy Priestley was paid £5 11''s''. 6''d''. for it.<ref>W. D. A. Smith, ''Under the Influence: A history of nitrous oxide and oxygen anaesthesia'', Macmillan (1982), p. 7.</ref>
==Works== 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.<ref name="DNB"/>
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.<ref name="DNB"/> 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.<ref>William McCarthy, ''Anna Letitia Barbauld: Voice of the Enlightenment'', Johns Hopkins University Press (2008), note 48 pp. 563–4.</ref>
His advertised ''Animadversions'' on his brother's theological views do not seem to have been published.<ref name="DNB"/> Their differences are known from letters Timothy wrote to their Aunt Sarah.<ref>{{cite journal|first1 = Kathleen L.|last1 = Neeley|first2 = M. Andrea|last2 = Bashore|title = Esteem, regard, and respect for rationality: Joseph Priestley's female connections|journal = Bull. Hist. Chem.|volume = 30|issue = 2|year = 2005|pages = 77–90|url = http://www.scs.illinois.edu/~mainzv/HIST/bulletin_open_access/v30-2/v30-2%20p77-90.pdf}}</ref>
He published also:<ref name="DNB"/>
*an annotated ''Family Bible'', 1793?; 1804, 2 vols (the commentary that of ''The Christian's New and Complete Universal Family Bible'' of c. 1790);<ref>{{cite book|author=Mary Wilson Carpenter|title=Imperial Bibles, Domestic Bodies: Women, Sexuality, and Religion in the Victorian Market|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFasH8XPFwoC&pg=PA159|access-date=29 October 2012|year=2003|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=978-0-8214-1515-3|page=159}}</ref> *the ''Christian's Looking-Glass'', 1790-2; *''Family Exercises'', 1792;
and a few single sermons.
Priestley was attacked by the polemicist William Huntington.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=14243|title=|first=Clare|last=Brant}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=William Huntington|title=The Barber; Or, Timothy Priestley Shaved, As Reflected from His Own Looking Glass the Operator William Huntington, S S|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0QWVSwAACAAJ|access-date=28 October 2012|date=May 2010|publisher=BiblioBazaar|isbn=978-1-170-62847-8}}</ref>
==Family== Priestley's wife Anne died in 1793 at age 47.<ref>Alfred W. Light, ''Bunhill Fields'' (1913), p. 202; [https://archive.org/stream/bunhillfieldswri00lighuoft#page/n235/mode/2up archive.org].</ref> His son William (1768-1827) was independent minister at Fordingbridge, Hampshire.<ref name="DNB"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Priestley, Timothy}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Priestley, Timothy}} Category:1734 births Category:1814 deaths Category:English Congregationalist ministers Category:People from Birstall, West Yorkshire Category:Burials at Bunhill Fields