George Holyoake

Holyoake's name on the lower section of the Reformers memorial, Kensal Green Cemetery

George Jacob Holyoake was born in Birmingham, where his father worked as a whitesmith and his mother as a button maker. He attended a dame school, but began working half-days at the same foundry as his father at the age of eight and learnt the whitesmith's trade. At eighteen he began attending lectures at the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute, where he discovered the socialist writings of Robert Owen and eventually became an assistant lecturer. He married Eleanor Williams in 1839 and decided to become a full-time teacher, but was rejected for promotion because of his socialist views.[4] Unable to teach full-time, Holyoake instead took a job as an Owenite social missionary. His first posting was in Worcester, and the following year he was transferred to a more important one in Sheffield.[5]

Holyoake joined Charles Southwell in dissenting from the official policy of Owenism that lecturers should take a religious oath, to enable them to take collections on Sundays. Southwell had founded an atheist organization, Oracle of Reason, and was soon imprisoned on those grounds. Holyoake took over as editor, having moved to an atheist position as a result of his experiences.

Holyoake was influenced by the French philosopher of science, Auguste Comte, notable in the discipline of sociology and famous for the doctrine of positivism. Comte had himself attempted to establish a secular "religion of humanity" to fulfil the cohesive function of traditional religion. Holyoake was an acquaintance of Harriet Martineau, the English translator of various works by Comte and perhaps the first female sociologist. She wrote to him excitedly on reviewing Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859.

In 1842, Holyoake became one of the last persons convicted for blasphemy in a public lecture, held in April 1842 at the Cheltenham Mechanics' 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.

It took an intervention by his supporters to stop him being walked in chains from Cheltenham to Gloucester Gaol, and there was a formal memorial of complaint to the then Home Secretary, which was upheld. He was well supported by the Cheltenham Free Press at the time in his actions, but attacked in the Cheltenham Chronicle and Examiner. Those attending 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."[6][7] In 1842 Holyoake and socialist Emma Martin formed the Anti-Persecution Union to support free thinkers in danger of arrest.[8]

Holyoake nevertheless underwent six months' imprisonment and editorship of the Oracle changed hands. After the Oracle closed at the end of 1843, Holyoake founded a more moderate paper, The Movement, which survived until 1845.[9] Holyoake also established the Reasoner,[10] where he developed the concept of secularism,[11] and founded the Secular Review in August 1876. He was the last person indicted for publishing an unstamped newspaper, but the prosecution was dropped when the tax was repealed.

In the 1850s Holyoake and Charles Southwell were giving lectures in East London. Harriet Law, then a Baptist, began debating with them, and in the process changed her beliefs.[12] She "saw the light of reason" in 1855 and became a strong supporter of Holyoake and a prominent secular speaker.

After an 1877 split with Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant, leaders of the National Secular Society (NSS), Holyoake, Charles Watts and Harriet Law founded the British Secular Union, which remained active until 1884.[13]

On 6 March 1881, Holyoake was one speaker at the opening of Leicester Secular Society's Secular Hall in Humberstone Gate, Leicester. The others were Harriet Law, Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh.[14]

Holyoake chaired the Rationalist Press Association in 1899–1906.[15] He retained his disbelief in God, but after the Oracle soon came to regard "atheism" as a negative term, preferring "secularism". He then adopted the term "agnostic" when it appeared.[16]

The grave of George Holyoake, Highgate Cemetery, London

Holyoake's later years were mainly devoted to the working-class co-operative movement. He served as President of the first day of the 1887 Co-operative Congress.[17] He wrote a history of the Rochdale Pioneers (1857), The History of Co-operation in England (1875; revised ed. 1906) and The Co-operative Movement of To-day (1891). He also published (1892) an autobiography entitled Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life, and in 1905 two volumes of reminiscences, Bygones Worth Remembering.[18][19]

Holyoake died in Brighton, Sussex, on 22 January 1906, and was buried in the eastern section of Highgate Cemetery in London.[20] 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, behind George Eliot's grave.

Holyoake House in Manchester, home to Co-operatives UK and the Co-operative College.

The Co-operative Movement decided that a lasting monument should be built to him: a permanent home for the Co-operative Union in Manchester.[21] Holyoake House was opened in 1911 and also houses the National Co-operative Archive. A second collection is held at Bishopsgate Library.[22]

Holyoake coined the term "jingoism" in a letter to the Daily News on 13 March 1878, referring to the patriotic song "By Jingo" by G. W. Hunt, popularised by the music hall singer G. H. MacDermott.[23]

He 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.[24]

The New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake was related to him.[25]

Holyoake is listed on the south face of the Reformers Memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

The National 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 in Bloomsbury, London, WC1H 0JL and is part of the Marchmont Association's scheme of local history commemorative plaques.[26]

Holyoake Road in Headington, Oxford, is named after George Holyoake.[27]

• Rationalism: A Treatise for the Times (London: J. Watson, 1845)
• The History of the Last Trial by Jury for Atheism in England: A Fragment of Autobiography (London: J. Watson, 1850)
• Christianity and Secularism Report of a Public Discussion Between Rev. Brewin and G. J. Holyoake (London: Ward & Co, 1853)
• Rudiments of Public Speaking and Debate or, Hints on the Application of Logic (New York: McElrath & Barker, 1853); 9th edition, revised & enlarged. 1904.
• The Trial of Theism (London, 1858)
• The Principles of Secularism (London, 1870)
• The History of Co-Operation in England: Its Literature and its Advocates (Volume I Volume II) (London: Trübner & Co, 1875)
• English Secularism: A Confession of Belief (Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company, 1896)

• Civil religion
• Philosophy of religion
• Secularisation
• Sociology of religion
• Thomas Aikenhead – the last person executed for blasphemy in Britain

• David Berman (1990), A history of atheism in Britain: from Hobbes to Russell, London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04727-7
• Joseph McCabe (1908), Life and Letters of George Jacob Holyoake (2 vols). London: Watts & Co. (Incorporates A contribution towards a bibliography of the writings of George Jacob Holyoake, by C. W. F. Goss, pp. 329–344.)
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Holyoake, George Jacob". Encyclopædia Britannica. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 622.
• Michael Rectenwald (2013), "Secularism and the Cultures of Nineteenth-century Scientific Naturalism". The British Journal for the History of Science 46, no. 2: pp. 231–254. Found at JSTOR here.
• Michael Rectenwald (2016), Nineteenth-century British Secularism Science, Religion and Literature. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

• Oxford Reference Online Premium – Edward Royle "Holyoake, George Jacob" The Oxford Companion to British History. Ed. John Cannon. Oxford University Press, 1997
• George Jacob Holyoake biography & selected writings at gerald-massey.org.uk
• Works by George Jacob Holyoake at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about George Holyoake at Internet Archive
  • The Reasoner on Internet Archive
• Secularism 101: Defining Secularism: Origins with George Jacob Holyoake
• "Archival material relating to George Holyoake". UK National Archives.