Joseph Barker (minister)
Encyclopedia
Joseph Barker was an English preacher, author, and controversialist. Of changeable views, he spent a period of his life in the United States, where he associated with leading abolitionists.
, near Leeds
, where his father was employed in the woollen manufacture. Joseph was the fourth son of a family of eleven, and was engaged as a wool-spinner. His childhood was one of privation, and his education was chiefly at a Sunday school. His parents were Wesleyans; he was enrolled a member of the community, in which he became an occasional preacher, and then a home missionary and exhorter. After about three years of probation and trial, he was a local preacher. He was then sent to a Methodist school at Leeds, kept by James Sigston.
Leaving the Wesleyan communion, he joined the ministry of the Methodist New Connexion
. In this body he officiated for a year, 1828–9, as assistant to the superintendent of the Liverpool
circuit, which he left with a recommendation to go out as a travelling preacher, on trial. Barker was appointed successively to the Hanley
circuit 1829–30, and to the Halifax
circuit 1830–1. At Halifax, contrary to the rule for preachers of his standing, he married a Miss Salt, of Betley
, in Staffordshire
, and was sentenced by the next conference to lose a year of his probation. He went on to Blyth
, in the Newcastle-on-Tyne circuit, 1831–2, a disciplinary migration; and to the Sunderland circuit for six months, 1832–3, with residence at Durham
. Popular if accused of heretical views, he was in 1833 admitted into ‘full connexion,’ and appointed, by an innovation, the third married preacher at Sheffield
, 1833–5. While at Sheffield and afterwards in the Chester
circuit, 1835–7, Barker strongly advocated teetotalism
. From 1837 to 1840 he conducted a weekly periodical called The Evangelical Reformer. At the conference of 1839 he was removed from Mossley
to Gateshead
, a comparatively new circuit, and there denounced socialism
.
Barker was expelled from the Methodist New Connexion, at the conference which met at Halifax in 1841, on the grounds that he ‘had denied the divine appointment of baptism, and refused to administer the ordinance.’ After his expulsion, which was followed by a loss to the Connexion estimated at ‘29 societies and 4,348 members’ Barker became the pastor of a church in Newcastle-on-Tyne, which had, like himself, left the Methodist New Connexion. Here it was Barker's daily custom to deliver lectures, followed by free discussions. He became printer, and in addition to other publications began to issue a periodical called The Christian; his adherents were known as Barkerites. At this period he held a ten nights' discussion with the Methodist Rev. William Cooke.
Barker, whose views were constantly changing, for a time inclined to Quakerism, and afterwards to Unitarianism
. In 1845 he preached in Unitarian chapels, in London and elsewhere. The Unitarians enabled him to start a printing establishment on a larger scale at Wortley
, a suburb of Leeds, where, on 6 July 1846, a steam printing-press, which had been provided at a cost of some £600l., was publicly presented to him by Dr. John Bowring
. Some months previously Barker had issued a ‘Proposal for a new library of three hundred volumes, the cheapest collection of works ever published.’ He now issued week by week a series of cheap books, theological, philosophical, ethical, and otherwise, under the title of the ‘Barker Library.’ Here also he published anonymously an autobiographical work entitled ‘The History and Confessions of a Man, as put forth by himself,’ Wortley, 1846; which was substantially reproduced in Barker's Review, 1861–3, as ‘The Life of a Man,’ and in the posthumously published ‘Life of Joseph Barker, written by himself,’ London, 1880.
In 1846 Barker ‘began,’ he says, to ‘dabble in politics,’ advocating republicanism
for England, repeal for Ireland, which he had visited in June and July 1845, and the nationalisation of the land. He started a weekly periodical called The People to propagate his opinions, which reached a circulation of over 20,000. In 1847, in the course of which year he made a six months' tour in America, he foretold, in his ‘Companion to the Almanac,’ the French revolution of 1848. Barker threw himself into the Chartist
agitation which followed, as the advocate of ‘peaceful legal measures.’ After the summer assizes in 1848, the judge at Liverpool issued bench warrants for the arrest of a number of political agitators, including Barker. He was arrested about six weeks later, and taken to the city gaol at Manchester
. He was detained until four o'clock on the next day, when the magistrates took bail; and Barker went to Bolton
, where he had been the same day elected M.P. for the borough by a large majority, though he never sat in parliament.’
Whilst still waiting for trial at the Liverpool winter assizes, he was elected a member of the town council of Leeds. At the assizes the attorney-general at the last moment entered a nolle prosequi
, and Barker was set at liberty. His views were now something like deism
. In 1851 he moved with his family to Central Ohio. In the United States he joined the anti-slavery party, and associated with William Lloyd Garrison
, Wendell Phillips Garrison
, Henry C. Wright, and other leading abolitionists. He settled in Nebraska
, where he purchased a large tract of land at a small price. In the summer of 1857, he began a long lecture tour. In Philadelphia he fulfilled an engagement of eight months, during which he lectured every Sunday. After spending a few weeks with his family in Nebraska, he returned to Philadelphia in August 1858, to undertake another eight months' course of lectures. Barker sailed from Boston 11 January 1860, for England, and having landed at Liverpool proceeded to Betley, in Staffordshire, the native place of his wife. His wife and children followed in August of the same year, and found him already engaged in secularist propaganda as one of the editors of the National Reformer, a position which, however, he then vacated in disgust.
On a re-examination of the Bible he subsequently began to retrace his steps towards orthodoxy, and to doubt ‘the beneficent tendency of infidelity.’ The process of return is documented in Barker's Review of Politics, Literature, Religion, and Morals, and Journal of Education, Science, and Co-operation, the publication of which he started on Saturday, 7 September 1861, after he had abandoned what he called the ‘unbounded license party.’ In 1862 he became lecturer to a congregation of an eclectic kind of ‘unbelievers’ at Burnley
, where he lived and laboured for more than a year, enforcing precepts of morality, and often taking occasion to speak favourably of the Bible and Christianity. He was formally reconciled to his old religious belief, and afterwards preached, at their invitation, to the Methodist reformers of Wolverhampton
. After accepting invitations from the Primitive Methodists of Bilston
and Tunstall
, he joined their community as a local preacher, and held the office until 1868.
Barker was in bad health, and the death of his wife at Nottingham
about this time, affected him greatly. He returned to America and stayed for a short time at Omaha
, where his estate had become a valuable property; then went east, and made Philadelphia his headquarters. He printed books and tracts in defence of the Christian religion. After spending the winter of 1874–5 at Boston, he slowly travelled back to Omaha in the following spring, resting with friends at New York and Philadelphia on his way. He died at Omaha on 15 September 1875, and was buried there. A few days before his death he declared that he ‘died in the full and firm belief of Jesus Christ, and in the faith and love of His religion as revealed in His life and works, as described in the New Testament.’
Attribution
Life
He was born 11 May 1806, at BramleyBramley
- Places :England* Bramley, Derbyshire* Bramley, Hampshire* Bramley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire* Bramley, Sheffield, South Yorkshire* Bramley, Surrey* Bramley, West Yorkshire**Bramley Buffaloes rugby league clubSouth Africa* Bramley, Gauteng- Other uses :...
, near Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, where his father was employed in the woollen manufacture. Joseph was the fourth son of a family of eleven, and was engaged as a wool-spinner. His childhood was one of privation, and his education was chiefly at a Sunday school. His parents were Wesleyans; he was enrolled a member of the community, in which he became an occasional preacher, and then a home missionary and exhorter. After about three years of probation and trial, he was a local preacher. He was then sent to a Methodist school at Leeds, kept by James Sigston.
Leaving the Wesleyan communion, he joined the ministry of the Methodist New Connexion
Methodist New Connexion
Methodist New Connexion was a Protestant nonconformist church, also known as the Kilhamite Methodists. It was formed in 1797 by secession from the Wesleyan Methodists, and merged in 1907 with the Bible Christian Church and the United Methodist Free Churches to form the United Methodist...
. In this body he officiated for a year, 1828–9, as assistant to the superintendent of the Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
circuit, which he left with a recommendation to go out as a travelling preacher, on trial. Barker was appointed successively to the Hanley
Hanley
Hanley, in Staffordshire, England, is one of the six major towns that joined together to form the city of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910. Hanley was the only one of the six towns to be a county borough before the merger; its status was transferred to the enlarged borough...
circuit 1829–30, and to the Halifax
Halifax, West Yorkshire
Halifax is a minster town, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It has an urban area population of 82,056 in the 2001 Census. It is well-known as a centre of England's woollen manufacture from the 15th century onward, originally dealing through the Halifax Piece...
circuit 1830–1. At Halifax, contrary to the rule for preachers of his standing, he married a Miss Salt, of Betley
Betley
Betley is a village and civil parish in the Newcastle district of Staffordshire, England, about halfway between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Nantwich. Betley forms a continual linear settlement with Wrinehill.-Transport:...
, in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, and was sentenced by the next conference to lose a year of his probation. He went on to Blyth
Blyth
- Places :Australia* Blyth, South Australia, a small townCanada* Blyth, Ontario, a villageUnited Kingdom* Blyth, Northumberland, a town* Blyth, Nottinghamshire, a village* Blyth, Suffolk, a village* River Blyth, Northumberland* River Blyth, Suffolk...
, in the Newcastle-on-Tyne circuit, 1831–2, a disciplinary migration; and to the Sunderland circuit for six months, 1832–3, with residence at Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
. Popular if accused of heretical views, he was in 1833 admitted into ‘full connexion,’ and appointed, by an innovation, the third married preacher at Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, 1833–5. While at Sheffield and afterwards in the Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
circuit, 1835–7, Barker strongly advocated teetotalism
Teetotalism
Teetotalism refers to either the practice of or the promotion of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or is simply said to be teetotal...
. From 1837 to 1840 he conducted a weekly periodical called The Evangelical Reformer. At the conference of 1839 he was removed from Mossley
Mossley
Mossley is a small town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. The town is located in the upper section of the Tame valley in the foothills of the Pennines, northeast of Ashton-under-Lyne and east of Manchester.Mossley has the distinction of...
to Gateshead
Gateshead
Gateshead is a town in Tyne and Wear, England and is the main settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead. Historically a part of County Durham, it lies on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne and together they form the urban core of Tyneside...
, a comparatively new circuit, and there denounced socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
.
Barker was expelled from the Methodist New Connexion, at the conference which met at Halifax in 1841, on the grounds that he ‘had denied the divine appointment of baptism, and refused to administer the ordinance.’ After his expulsion, which was followed by a loss to the Connexion estimated at ‘29 societies and 4,348 members’ Barker became the pastor of a church in Newcastle-on-Tyne, which had, like himself, left the Methodist New Connexion. Here it was Barker's daily custom to deliver lectures, followed by free discussions. He became printer, and in addition to other publications began to issue a periodical called The Christian; his adherents were known as Barkerites. At this period he held a ten nights' discussion with the Methodist Rev. William Cooke.
Barker, whose views were constantly changing, for a time inclined to Quakerism, and afterwards to Unitarianism
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
. In 1845 he preached in Unitarian chapels, in London and elsewhere. The Unitarians enabled him to start a printing establishment on a larger scale at Wortley
Wortley
Wortley could refer to:Places*Wortley, South Yorkshire**Wortley railway station**Wortley Hall**Wortley Rural District*Wortley, West Yorkshire - district of LeedsPeople*Alexander Wortley , English naval veteran eccentric...
, a suburb of Leeds, where, on 6 July 1846, a steam printing-press, which had been provided at a cost of some £600l., was publicly presented to him by Dr. John Bowring
John Bowring
Sir John Bowring, KCB was an English political economist, traveller, miscellaneous writer, polyglot, and the 4th Governor of Hong Kong.- Early life :...
. Some months previously Barker had issued a ‘Proposal for a new library of three hundred volumes, the cheapest collection of works ever published.’ He now issued week by week a series of cheap books, theological, philosophical, ethical, and otherwise, under the title of the ‘Barker Library.’ Here also he published anonymously an autobiographical work entitled ‘The History and Confessions of a Man, as put forth by himself,’ Wortley, 1846; which was substantially reproduced in Barker's Review, 1861–3, as ‘The Life of a Man,’ and in the posthumously published ‘Life of Joseph Barker, written by himself,’ London, 1880.
In 1846 Barker ‘began,’ he says, to ‘dabble in politics,’ advocating republicanism
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
for England, repeal for Ireland, which he had visited in June and July 1845, and the nationalisation of the land. He started a weekly periodical called The People to propagate his opinions, which reached a circulation of over 20,000. In 1847, in the course of which year he made a six months' tour in America, he foretold, in his ‘Companion to the Almanac,’ the French revolution of 1848. Barker threw himself into the Chartist
Chartist
Chartist may refer to:*Chartist , a person who uses charts for technical analysis*Chartist , a British social democratic periodical*An adherent of Chartism, a 19th-century political and social reform movement in the UK...
agitation which followed, as the advocate of ‘peaceful legal measures.’ After the summer assizes in 1848, the judge at Liverpool issued bench warrants for the arrest of a number of political agitators, including Barker. He was arrested about six weeks later, and taken to the city gaol at Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. He was detained until four o'clock on the next day, when the magistrates took bail; and Barker went to Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
, where he had been the same day elected M.P. for the borough by a large majority, though he never sat in parliament.’
Whilst still waiting for trial at the Liverpool winter assizes, he was elected a member of the town council of Leeds. At the assizes the attorney-general at the last moment entered a nolle prosequi
Nolle prosequi
Nolle prosequi is legal term of art and a Latin legal phrase meaning "to be unwilling to pursue", a phrase amounting to "please do not prosecute". It is a phrase used in many common law criminal prosecution contexts to describe a prosecutor's decision to voluntarily discontinue criminal charges...
, and Barker was set at liberty. His views were now something like deism
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
. In 1851 he moved with his family to Central Ohio. In the United States he joined the anti-slavery party, and associated with William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, and as one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United...
, Wendell Phillips Garrison
Wendell Phillips Garrison
Wendell Phillips Garrison was an American editor and author.He was born at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, a son of William Lloyd Garrison. He graduated from Harvard in 1861 and was literary editor of the Nation from 1865 to 1906. He had assisted E. L. Godkin in establishing the magazine...
, Henry C. Wright, and other leading abolitionists. He settled in Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, where he purchased a large tract of land at a small price. In the summer of 1857, he began a long lecture tour. In Philadelphia he fulfilled an engagement of eight months, during which he lectured every Sunday. After spending a few weeks with his family in Nebraska, he returned to Philadelphia in August 1858, to undertake another eight months' course of lectures. Barker sailed from Boston 11 January 1860, for England, and having landed at Liverpool proceeded to Betley, in Staffordshire, the native place of his wife. His wife and children followed in August of the same year, and found him already engaged in secularist propaganda as one of the editors of the National Reformer, a position which, however, he then vacated in disgust.
On a re-examination of the Bible he subsequently began to retrace his steps towards orthodoxy, and to doubt ‘the beneficent tendency of infidelity.’ The process of return is documented in Barker's Review of Politics, Literature, Religion, and Morals, and Journal of Education, Science, and Co-operation, the publication of which he started on Saturday, 7 September 1861, after he had abandoned what he called the ‘unbounded license party.’ In 1862 he became lecturer to a congregation of an eclectic kind of ‘unbelievers’ at Burnley
Burnley
Burnley is a market town in the Burnley borough of Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,500. It lies north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun....
, where he lived and laboured for more than a year, enforcing precepts of morality, and often taking occasion to speak favourably of the Bible and Christianity. He was formally reconciled to his old religious belief, and afterwards preached, at their invitation, to the Methodist reformers of Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
. After accepting invitations from the Primitive Methodists of Bilston
Bilston
Bilston is a town in the English county of West Midlands, situated in the southeastern corner of the City of Wolverhampton. Three wards of Wolverhampton City Council cover the town: Bilston East and Bilston North, which almost entirely comprise parts of the historic Borough of Bilston, and...
and Tunstall
Tunstall
-Place names:United Kingdom*Tunstall, East Riding of Yorkshire*Tunstall, Kent*Tunstall, Lancashire*Tunstall, Norfolk, in the parish of Halvergate*Tunstall, North Yorkshire*Tunstall, Stafford, near to Eccleshall...
, he joined their community as a local preacher, and held the office until 1868.
Barker was in bad health, and the death of his wife at Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
about this time, affected him greatly. He returned to America and stayed for a short time at Omaha
Omaha
Omaha may refer to:*Omaha , a Native American tribe that currently resides in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Nebraska-Places:United States* Omaha, Nebraska* Omaha, Arkansas* Omaha, Georgia* Omaha, Illinois* Omaha, Texas...
, where his estate had become a valuable property; then went east, and made Philadelphia his headquarters. He printed books and tracts in defence of the Christian religion. After spending the winter of 1874–5 at Boston, he slowly travelled back to Omaha in the following spring, resting with friends at New York and Philadelphia on his way. He died at Omaha on 15 September 1875, and was buried there. A few days before his death he declared that he ‘died in the full and firm belief of Jesus Christ, and in the faith and love of His religion as revealed in His life and works, as described in the New Testament.’
Works
Other writings were his ‘Christianity Triumphant,’ Wortley, 1846; ‘The Life of William Penn, the celebrated Quaker and Founder of Pennsylvania,’ London and Wortley, 1847, the second volume of the ‘Barker Library;’ ‘Lectures on the Church of England Prayer-book,’ Wortley, 1847; ‘Confessions of Joseph Barker, a Convert from Christianity,’ London, 1858, a letter addressed to G. J. Holyoake, from Omaha city, Nebraska, 22 July 1858, and reprinted from the ‘Reasoner;’ and the ‘Life of Joseph Barker, written by himself,’ 1880, the autobiographical portion of which was brought down to the year 1868, whilst later particulars, as well as some running commentaries, were supplied by Joseph Barker, junior, and J. T. Barker, the editor of the volume.External links
- Mount Zion Chapel Halifax
- Peter L. Embley, The Origins and Early Development of the Plymouth Brethren (PDF), documents Barker and his "Christian Brethern
Attribution