Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) was a celebrated and controversial scientist, philosopher, and Unitarian minister. Priestley was educated at Daventry Academy. He then ministered to Independent congregations at Needham Market, Suffolk, and at Nantwich between 1755 and 1761. After a period where he served as a tutor at Warrington Academy in Lancashire, he assumed the pastorate at Mill Lane in Leeds in 1767. He resigned in 1772 to accept a position under the sponsorship of William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelbourne, for the purpose of devoting himself to scientific experiments. In 1780, now espousing Unitarian doctrines, he returned to the ministry, this time at the New Meeting in Birmingham. Tragically, his home, along with his manuscripts and scientific apparatus, was burned during the Birmingham Riots in July 1791. He removed to London, but emigrated to America in 1794, where he died in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, in 1804. Among his numerous philosophical, scientific, and religious works was The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity Illustrated  (1777).