Author: Carlyle, Joseph Dacre
Biography:
CARLYLE, Joseph Dacre (1758-1804: ODNB)
He was born on 4 June 1758, the fourth of six children of Dr. George Carlyle (1715-1784), physician, and his second wife Dorothy Dacre Appleby, who had married in 1751. He was educated at Mr. Wilson’s school in Kirkby Lonsdale and Carlisle Grammar School. He went up to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1775 before removing to Queens’ in 1778 (BA 1799, MA 1783, BD 1793) where he also became a Fellow. He married Margaret Kerr on 10 Oct. 1786 at St. Mary, Carlisle. They had a son, George, who died in childhood, and a daughter, Eleanor. During his long stay in Cambridge he amassed a number of church livings around Carlisle: St. Cuthbert’s (1785), Grinsdale (1790), Torpenhow (1791), and Castle Sowerby (1793), before becoming Vicar General and Chancellor of Carlisle (1799). At Cambridge he also learnt Arabic from David Zamio, a native of Bagdad, and became Professor of Arabic in 1795. His Specimens of Arabian Poetry (1796) included biographical sketches and was widely admired. In 1799 he was appointed Chaplain to Lord Elgin’s mission to Constantinople and travelled widely in the region. He spent much of his time collecting Greek and Syriac manuscripts for a proposed edition of the New Testament which remained unfinished and unpublished at his death. He returned to England in 1801 and was presented with the living of Newcastle upon Tyne. He died 12 Apr. 1804 at the Vicarage there. After his death, his sister Susanna Maria Carlyle (1752-1833) edited his Poems (1805), which included his travel poems, translations, and journal. She also later attempted to vindicate his reputation from the charge that he had misappropriated manuscripts while in Constantinople. Henry Ford, Reader in Arabic at Oxford, completed and published his Holy Bible . . . in the Arabic Language (1811). (ODNB 31 Jul. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 31 Jul. 2021; findmypast.co.uk 31 Jul. 2021; CCEd 31 Jul. 2021; London Courier 23 Apr. 1804; GM Apr. 1804, 390; John Sykes, Local Records [1833] 2: 20-1) AA
Other Names:
- J. D. Carlyle