George Holyoake | |
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| Born | George Jacob Holyoake (1817-04-13)13 April 1817 Birmingham,Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 22 January 1906(1906-01-22) (aged 88) |
| Burial place | Highgate Cemetery, London |
| Occupation | Newspaper editor |
| Years active | 1846–1861 |
| Known for | Inventing the word secularism. |
| Spouse | Eleanor Williams |
| Relatives | Austin Holyoake (brother) |
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George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 – 22 January 1906) was an English secularist,co-operator and newspaper editor. He coined the termssecularism in 1851[1] and "jingoism" in 1878.[2] He edited a secularist paper,The Reasoner, from 1846 to June 1861, and a co-operative one,The English Leader, in 1864–1867.[3]
George Jacob Holyoake was born inBirmingham, where his father worked as awhitesmith and his mother as a button maker. He attended adame school and a Wesleyan Sunday School,[4] began working half-days at the same foundry as his father at the age of eight, and learnt his trade. At 18 he began attending lectures at the BirminghamMechanics' Institute, where he encountered thesocialist writings ofRobert Owen and later became an assistant lecturer. He married Eleanor Williams in 1839 and decided to become a full-time teacher, but was rejected for hissocialist views.[5] Unable to teach full-time, Holyoake took a job as anOwenite social missionary. His first posting was in Worcester, but the following year he was transferred to a more important one in Sheffield.[6]
Holyoake joinedCharles Southwell in dissenting from the official Owenite policy that lecturers should take a religious oath to enable them to take collections on Sundays. Southwell had founded an atheist publication,Oracle of Reason, and was soon imprisoned on those grounds. Holyoake took over as editor, having moved to anatheist position as a result of his experiences.
Holyoake was influenced by the Frenchphilosopher of science,Auguste Comte, notable insociology and famous for the doctrine ofpositivism. Comte had himself attempted to establish a secular "religion of humanity" to fulfil the cohesivefunction of traditional religion. Holyoake was an acquaintance ofHarriet Martineau, who translated various works by Comte and was perhaps the first female sociologist. She wrote to him excitedly on reviewingDarwin'sOn the Origin of Species in 1859.
In 1842, Holyoake became one of the last persons convicted forblasphemy in a public lecture, held in April 1842 at theCheltenhamMechanics' 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.[7]
It took an intervention by supporters to stop him being walked in chains from Cheltenham toGloucester Gaol, and there was a formal complaint to the Home Secretary, which was upheld. He was well supported by theCheltenham Free Press at the time in his actions, but attacked in theCheltenham Chronicle andExaminer. Those at the lecture, the second in a series, moved and carried a motion "that free discussion was equally beneficial in the departments of politics, morals and religion."[8][9] In 1842 Holyoake and the socialistEmma Martin formed theAnti-Persecution Union to supportfree thinkers in danger of arrest.[10]
Holyoake nonetheless underwent six months' imprisonment and editorship of theOracle changed hands. After the paper closed at the end of 1843, Holyoake founded a more moderate one,The Movement, which survived into 1845.[11] Holyoake also foundedThe Reasoner,[12] where he developed the concept ofsecularism,[13]. Among the causes he supported through the paper was that ofThomas Pooley, who was imprisoned for twenty-one months on a blasphemy charge in 1857.[14] It was followed by theSecular Review in August 1876. He was the last person indicted for publishing an unstamped newspaper, but the prosecution was dropped when the tax was withdrawn.[7]
He retained his disbelief in God, but after theOracle soon came to see "atheism" as a negative term, preferring "secularism". He then adopted the term "agnostic", when it appeared.[15]
In the 1850s Holyoake andCharles Southwell were lecturing in East London.Harriet Law, then a Baptist, began debating with them, and in the process changed her beliefs.[16] She "saw the light of reason" in 1855 and became a supporter of Holyoake and a prominent secular speaker.
After an 1877 split withCharles Bradlaugh andAnnie Besant, leaders of theNational Secular Society (NSS), Holyoake,Charles Watts and Harriet Law founded theBritish Secular Union, which remained active until 1884.[17]
On 6 March 1881, Holyoake was a speaker at the opening ofLeicester Secular Society'sSecular Hall in Humberstone Gate, along withHarriet Law,Annie Besant andCharles Bradlaugh.[18] He chaired theRationalist Press Association in 1899–1906.[19]
Holyoake's later years were mainly spent on the working-class co-operative movement. He served asPresident for the first day of the 1887Co-operative Congress.[20] He wrote a history of theRochdale Pioneers (1857),The History of Co-operation in England (1875; revised ed. 1906) andThe Co-operative Movement of To-day (1891). He also published (1892) an autobiography entitledSixty Years of an Agitator's Life, and in 1905 two volumes of reminiscences,Bygones Worth Remembering.[21][22][7]
Holyoake died inBrighton,Sussex, on 22 January 1906, and was buried in the eastern section ofHighgate Cemetery in London. The grave lies in a north-east section, off the main paths, and is not readily accessible, but visible between graves on the east side of the main central-north path, behindGeorge Eliot's grave.
The Co-operative Movement decided to build a lasting monument to him: a permanent home for theCo-operative Union inManchester.[23] Holyoake House was opened in 1911 and also houses the National Co-operative Archive. A second collection is held atBishopsgate Library.[24]
Holyoake coined the term "jingoism" in a letter toThe Daily News on 13 March 1878, referring to the patriotic song "By Jingo" byG. W. Hunt, popularised by themusic hall singerG. H. MacDermott.[25][26] Referring back to this he wrote, "I had certainly intended to mark, by a convenient name, a new species of patriots... [whose] characteristic was a war-urging pretentiousness which discredited the silent, resolute, self-defensiveness of the British people."[27]
Holyoake was the uncle of an independent MP and convicted fraudster,Horatio Bottomley, and contributed to the cost of Bottomley's upkeep after he was orphaned in 1865.[28] The New Zealand Prime MinisterKeith Holyoake was related to him.[29]
Holyoake is listed on the south face of the Reformers' Memorial in London'sKensal Green Cemetery.
The Cooperative Union Limited Holyoake House, Hanover Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M60 0AS has Holyoake commemorated on the side of the building as “one of the pioneers of Co-operation who for nearly 70 years was a strenuous worker for liberty and reform”.
TheNational Secular Society unveiled a blue plaque commemorating Holyoake on Friday 17 August 2018. It is mounted on the front of a newsagents' at 4 Woburn Walk inBloomsbury, London, WC1H 0JL, as part of theMarchmont Association's scheme of local history commemorative plaques.[30]
Holyoake Road inHeadington, Oxford, Holyoake Walk inEaling, London, Holyoake Terrace inPenrith, Cumbria and Holyoake Terrace inSevenoaks, Kent, are named after George Holyoake.[31][32][33]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Holyoake, George Jacob".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 622.
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