Author: Wise, Joseph
Biography:
WISE, Joseph (c. 1736-1810: ancestry.com)
The Rev. Joseph Wise identifies himself on the title-pages of his various works as the author of two works published before 1770—a drama (The Coronation of David) and a poem (Providence), both of which appeared in 1766 but with statements dating their composition to 1763—in addition to a prose Essay on Sacrifice (1775) and the works included in this bibliography. He generally added his professional credentials as Rector of Penhurst in Sussex and later (in 1790) also Curate of Poplar, Stepney, Middlesex. He is sometimes confused with another Rev. Joseph Wise who served several parishes, most of them in Essex, between 1779 and 1814, when he died of natural causes. There is no record of ordination for the earlier Joseph Wise in CCEd but he was the Rector of Penhurst from his induction in 2 Dec. 1764 until his death in 1810, aged 74, according to an entry in the parish register. The son of a yeoman, he was born at The Boggs, Westlinton, Cumberland, and baptised at Holme Cultram in 1736. He served an apprenticeship to an attorney in Carlisle but the work did not suit him and he went to London to try to earn a living as a writer instead. He spent some time teaching in a school, contributed to periodicals, and undertook commissions from booksellers. On 1 Aug. 1757 he married Elizabeth (Eliza) Helps at Dilton in Wiltshire, and with a growing family to support he took orders and moved to Sussex. According to Hutchinson they had nine children. Wise may not have spent as much time at Penhurst as his parishioners would have liked, since he had a parallel career in publishing in London, and by report was a popular preacher there. His 1775 advertisement for an ambitious but abortive family bible to which he was to supply a preface and notes is dated from Fair St. in the parish of St. John Horsleydown, Southwark (London), Surrey, where two of his children were baptised. He died at home in Islington, London, but was buried at Penhurst on 7 Dec. 1810. (ancestry.com 5 July 2024; findmypast.com 5 July 2024; CCEd 5 July 2024; N&Q 5 June 1875, 447, and 19 June 1875, 489, and 14 Aug. 1875, p.130; Northampton Mercury 10 July 1775; William Hutchinson, History of the County of Cumberland [1794] 2: 341-2; information from AA) HJ