GEORGE

See also:

• JACOB
• JACOB, JOHN (1812-1858)

JACOB

See also:

• GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE (1817-2906)

HOLYOAKE (1817-2906)  , English secularist and co-operator, was born at Birmingham, on the 13th of April 1817 . At an early age he became an Owenite lecturer, and in 1841 was the last person convicted for blasphemy in a public lecture, 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 . He nevertheless under-went six months' imprisonment, and upon his release invented the inoffensive term " secularism " as descriptive of his opinions, and established the Reasoner in their support . He was also the last person indicted for publishing an unstamped newspaper, but the prosecution dropped upon the repeal of the tax . His later years were chiefly devoted to the promotion of the co-operative movement among the working classes . He wrote the 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) his autobiography, under the title of Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life, and in 1905 two volumes of reminiscences, Bygones worth Remembering . He died at Brighton on the 22nd of January 1906 . See J . McCabe, Life and Letters of G . J . Holyoake (2 vols., 1908) ; C .

W . F .

Goss, Descriptive Bibliography of the Writings of G . J . Holyoake (1908) .