George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 - 22 January 1906),
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
secularistSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
and
co-operatorA worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically controlled by its worker-owners. This control may be exercised in a number of ways. In 'pure' forms of worker co-operative, all shares are held by the workforce with no outside or consumer owners, and each member has one voting share...
, was born in
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He coined the term "
secularismSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
" in 1851 and the term "
jingoismJingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy". In practice, it refers to the advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what they perceive as their country's national...
" in 1878.
Holyoake was for a brief time a lecturer at the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute, later becoming a
OweniteRobert Owen , born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales was a social reformer and one of the founders of socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
lecturer.
Holyoake joined
Charles SouthwellCharles Southwell was a radical journalist and freethinker.-Early life:Charles Southwell was born in London, the youngest of 33 children in a poor family. His father, William, was a piano maker who had married three times. His mother, Fanny , was William's ex-servant, and at least three decades...
in dissenting from the official policy of Owenism that lecturers should take a religious oath, to enable them to take collections on Sundays.
George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 - 22 January 1906),
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
secularistSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
and
co-operatorA worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically controlled by its worker-owners. This control may be exercised in a number of ways. In 'pure' forms of worker co-operative, all shares are held by the workforce with no outside or consumer owners, and each member has one voting share...
, was born in
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. He coined the term "
secularismSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
" in 1851 and the term "
jingoismJingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy". In practice, it refers to the advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what they perceive as their country's national...
" in 1878.
Owenism
Holyoake was for a brief time a lecturer at the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute, later becoming a
OweniteRobert Owen , born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales was a social reformer and one of the founders of socialism and the cooperative movement.Owen's philosophy was based on three intellectual pillars:...
lecturer.
Holyoake joined
Charles SouthwellCharles Southwell was a radical journalist and freethinker.-Early life:Charles Southwell was born in London, the youngest of 33 children in a poor family. His father, William, was a piano maker who had married three times. His mother, Fanny , was William's ex-servant, and at least three decades...
in dissenting from the official policy of Owenism that lecturers should take a religious oath, to enable them to take collections on Sundays. Southwell had founded the atheist
Oracle of ReasonThe Oracle of Reason, or Philosophy Vindicated was the first avowedly atheistic periodical to be published in Britain . It was founded by Charles Southwell, William Chilton and John Field in 1841 , and lasted until 1843.-History:...
, and was soon imprisoned because of its contents. Holyoake took over as editor, having moved to an
atheistAtheism can be either the rejection of theism,or the position that deities do not exist.In the broadest sense, it is the absence of belief in the existence of deities....
position as a result of his experiences.
Prosecution
In 1842, Holyoake became the last person convicted for
blasphemyThis article describes the blasphemy law in the United Kingdom.- England & Wales :The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were abolished in 2008. See now the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.- Before the common law era :...
in a public lecture, held in April 1842 at the Cheltenham Mechanics' Institute, though this had no theological character and the incriminating words were merely a reply to a question addressed to him from the body of the meeting.
It took an intervention by his supporters to stop him being walked in chains from Cheltenham to Gloucester gaol and there was a formal memorial of complaint to the then Home Secretary, which was upheld. He was well supported by the Cheltenham Free Press at the time in his actions, but attacked in the Cheltenham Chronicle and Examiner. Those attending the lecture, which was the second in a series, moved and carried a motion 'that free discussion was equally beneficial in the departments of politics, morals and religion'.
Secularism
Holyoake nevertheless underwent six months imprisonment, and the editorship of the
Oracle changed hands. After the
Oracle closed at the end of 1843, Holyoake founded a more moderate paper,
The MovementThe Movement may refer to:* Civil Rights Movement* The Movement * The Catholic Social Studies Movement, led by B.A. Santamaria*The Movement , a Danish/German mod revival punk band*The Movement , the house music act...
, which survived until 1845. Holyoake then established the
Reasoner, where he developed the concept of
secularismSecularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and freedom from the government imposition of religion upon the people, within a...
. He was also the last person indicted for publishing an unstamped newspaper, but the prosecution was dropped upon the repeal of the tax.
Holyoake retained his disbelief in God, but after the
Oracle soon came to regard "atheism" as a negative word - hence his preference for "secularism". Holyoake adopted the word "agnostic" when that became available.
Co-operative movement
His later years were chiefly devoted to the promotion of the cooperative movement among lower-class workers. He served as
President of the first day of the 1887
Co-operative CongressThe Co-operative Congress is the national conference of the UK Co-operative Movement. The first of the modern congresses took place in 1869 following a series of meetings called the "Owenite Congress" in the 1830s...
. He wrote the history of the
Rochdale Pioneers (1857),
The History of Co-operation in England (1875; revised ed., 1906), and
The Co-operative Movement of To-day (1891). He also published (1892) his autobiography, under the title of
Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life, and in 1905 two volumes of reminiscences,
Bygones worth Remembering.
He died at
BrightonBrighton is a town in the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex on the south coast of Great Britain...
on 22 January 1906, and was buried in
Highgate CemeteryHighgate Cemetery is a cemetery located in Highgate, London, England. It is designated Grade II* on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.-History and setting:...
in London. The Co-operative Movement decided that a lasting monument should be built to him: a permanent home for the Co-operative Union in
ManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2007, the population of the city was estimated to be 458,100...
. Holyoake House was opened in 1911, and also houses a collection of Holyoake's papers and publications: a second collection is also held at
Bishopsgate LibraryBishopsgate Library is an independent, charity-funded library located within the Bishopsgate Institute in the City of London.The library's particular strengths include printed and archive material on London, freethought and the labour movement, developed by Charles Goss, librarian from 1897 to 1941...
.
Miscellaneous
Holyoake coined the term "
jingoismJingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy". In practice, it refers to the advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what they perceive as their country's national...
" in a letter to the
Daily NewsThe News Chronicle was a British daily newspaper. It ceased publication in 1960, being absorbed into the Daily Mail.-Daily Chronicle:...
on 13 March 1878, referring to the patriotic song "By Jingo" by G. W. Hunt, popularised by the
music hallMusic hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
singer
G. H. MacDermottGilbert Hastings MacDermott , was also known as the "Great MacDermott". He became famous for his rendition of the "Jingo War Song" which he bought from G. W. Hunt...
.
He was the uncle of the independent MP and convicted fraudster
Horatio BottomleyHoratio William Bottomley was a British financier, swindler, journalist, newspaper proprietor, populist politician and Member of Parliament .-Early life:...
and contributed towards the cost of Bottomley's upkeep after he was orphaned in 1865.
Works
External links