Author: Osborne, J.
Biography:
OSBORNE, J. (fl 1795)
In the absence of both a first name and any other publications, “J. Osborne” is known only by the information he provided himself, directly or indirectly, in Scripture and Reason, a defence of the reasonableness of scripture against the attacks of Thomas Paine (1737-1809, q.v.), written in heroic couplets. Osborne was “a blind seaman of South Shields” in Durham county, near Newcastle on Tyne where the poem was printed. The agent selling the book in South Shields—presumably a friend--was a local mathematician, George Baron, who emigrated to the US about 1801, taught at West Point and in New York City, where he died in 1818. Osborne describes his own writing as “in college stile untaught” but he was not uneducated. (ancestry.com 24 Mar. 2024; findmypast.com 24 Mar. 2024) HJ