Benjamin St John Baptist Joule (1817 - 1895)

Born 8 Nov 1817 in Salford, Lancashire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Caroline (Molyneux) Joule — married 7 Dec 1842 (to 28 Jul 1844) in Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom

Died 21 May 1895 at age 77 in Rothesay, Bute, Scotland, United Kingdom

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Biography

Benjamin was born in autumn 1817, the eldest [see notes] child of brewer Benjamin Joule and Alice Prescott. The Joules primarily lived adjacent to the family-owned brewery at New Bailey Street, Salford. In 1829, Joule was the largest of the 28 breweries in the Manchester area.^[1]

In subsequent years siblings James, Alice, Mary and John were added to the family. Benjamin and brother James received their education at home with private tutors, one of which being John Dalton. Mother Alice passed away in late 1836, when Benjamin was age 19. The 1841 UK census found Benjamin, his father and surviving siblings at their country home at nearby Pendlebury. One of the several young women also in the household was Caroline Molyneux.

At age 25 in autumn 1842, Benjamin married 30-year-old Caroline at Everton.^[2] Caroline passed away 19 months later, the pair having no children. The year following Caroline's death, in summer 1845, Benjamin was re-christened as Benjamin St. John Baptist Joule at Holy Trinity Church, Hulme, Manchester, where he also volunteered his services, and was in 1850 honored with a gift of a diamond ring and rare musical compilations inscribed:

Presented to Benjamin S. John Baptist Joule, by the clergy and laity of the Church of the Holy Trinity, as a token of esteem and regard, and in grateful acknowledgement of this services as honorary organist and choir master.^[3]

Benjamin further pursued his interests, both musical and ecclesiastical, as evidenced by the following.

On Thursday night, Mr. B. S. J. B. Joule, honorary organist and choir master at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Manchester, delivered an interesting lecture before the members and friends of the Cross-stone Church Institute, in the National School-room, Priestwell, on Metrical Psalmody. The object of the lecturer was to show the inconsistency of certain music being set to psalms and hymns sung at church in the former ages, and what alterations were at present required. He narrated many interesting facts which had arisen from the neglect of setting proper metre to psalms and hymns, which had no harmonic disposition of syllables. The choirs from Chross-stone, Todmorden, and Walsden churches were in attendance, and sung a number of compositions, as altered by Mr. Joule, which gave great satisfaction.^[4]

A consequence of these pursuits was the publication of several arrangments and compilations, of which perhaps the most remunerative was Joule's Collection Of Chants, of which the rights were valued in his estate at £540.^[5]

The 1851 UK census found Benjamin, his father, and youngest sister and brother living at Oakfield on Upper Chorlton Road in the Manchester area called Moss Side. By this point father Benjamin had become an invalid,^[6] so there were several servants and a nurse in the home. Benjamin and his youngest brother John were listed as brewers. The brewery was sold in 1854, and father Benjamin passed away in 1858. The following year Benjamin was made a Justice Of The Peace for Manchester.^[7]

1860 found Benjamin still at Moss Side, and in a dispute with the local authorities over street lighting and drainage. This, along with the proceeds of his father's estate, seem to have contributed to the 1861 UK census finding him, widower brother James and his children, and sister Mary, living closer to Old Trafford at 16 Stretford Road. 1861 also saw Benjamin purchase thousands of acres of land in Ireland, consequently the census listed Benjamin's occupation as proprietor of land; justice of the peace.

At age 45 in autumn 1863, Benjamin quietly married 28-year-old Eliza Jane Hall at the Liverpool registry office.^[8] Remaining at Old Trafford, he continued his musical pursuits and duties as magistrate in Manchester. Summer 1867 saw a policeman killed in a Manchester Fenian act, and Benjamin led the panel of magistrates initially enquiring into the case.^[9] Part of the group, known as the Manchester Martyrs, were later convicted and executed. In a twist of fate, the gallows were built "through the outside wall of the jail facing New Bailey Street", opposite the Joule family's former brewery. Benjamin apparently discontinued regular duties as Manchester magistrate the following year, but retained his position. The 1871 UK census found Benjamin with his brother James' family, along with sister Mary, at 5 Cliffs Point in the Salford region of Kersal. Although listed as married, Benjamin's wife was notably absent.

Having been made a county-wide justice of the peace,^[10] Benjamin shifted his magistrate activities from Manchester to the Liverpool area, and began residing in Southport.^[11] Benjamin and his wife lived at South Cliffe, 26 Leicester Street in a house run by one Eliza Gorst,^[12] a situation also reflected in the 1881 UK census.

Sometime thereafter, Benjamin and his wife, since at least 1881 known as Stephanie, relocated to Rothesay on the Scottish Isle of Bute. She died in summer 1885. Benjamin continued in residing at Rothesay another ten years, accompanied by a large dog called Carlos.^[5][13] He passed away in spring 1895.^[14]

Research Notes

• Benjamin is probably not the first child born to his parents, given the time gap between their marriage and his birth, and the fact that the youngest three siblings were listed as the 5th, 6th and 7th children at their christenings. It appears two children were born and passed away prior to Benjamin's birth.
• Although not documented elsewhere, the 1881 UK census listed Benjamin's second wife as having been born in Scotland. It also seems likely, given Benjamin's own re-christening, that her full name of Stephanie Hortense Marie Mathilde Elizabeth Amelia Bonaparte Joule was entirely contrived. It however remains unknown whether her true name was Eliza Jane Hall, as listed on their 1863 marriage record.
• It is speculated that Benjamin's retirement to a remote Scottish island was prompted by fear of assassination,^[13] due to, in the eyes of Irish nationalists, the offences of having participating in the adjudication of the Manchester Martyrs, and later evicting the poor on lands he owned, including Donegal tenants,^[15] and kelp farmers at Tory Island.^[16]
• It is somewhat ironic that music-focused Benjamin lived out his life on a remote Scottish island, after having in 1860 penned a letter to the editor of the Manchester Courier, calling Scotland a "... country which never produced a real musician, a composer, or even a great performer, and in which the only instrumental music known is ... some contemptible dance tune..."^[17]

Sources

1. ↑ Slugg, Josiah Thomas, Reminiscences of Manchester fifty years ago, 1881, p. 99, https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesma00sluggoog/reminiscencesma00sluggoog
2. ↑ "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:2:9QB2-MXM : 12 March 2020), Entry for Benjamin Joule, 1842.
3. ↑ "Church of the Holy Trinity, Hulme", Manchester Courier, November 16, 1850, page 7
4. ↑ "Lecture On Psalmody", Manchester Courier, October 26, 1850, page 8
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} National Records of Scotland, Wills and testaments Ref. SC8/35/25, Rothesay Sheriff Court
6. ↑ Reynolds, Osborne, Memoir of James Prescott Joule, 1892, page 26, https://archive.org/details/cu31924012326009/cu31924012326009
7. ↑ "The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has added the name of Benjamin St. John Baptist Joule, Esq. of Whalley Range, to the commission of the peace for Manchester.", Manchester Courier, April 2, 1859, page 7
8. ↑ UK GRO, Marriage Record, Liverpool Register Office, 1863, No. 17
9. ↑ "Fenian Rescue In Manchester", Manchester Courier, September 19, 1867, page 3
10. ↑ "During the Salford hundred sessions, on Tuesday last, Benjamin St. John Baptist Joule, Esq., Thorncliffe, Old Trafford, took the oaths and qualified as a magistrate for the county palatine of Lancaster. Mr. Joule has been for some time one of the most active of the justices of the peace for the city of Manchester.", Manchester Courier, November 3, 1866, page 9
11. ↑ "Southport Police Court", Southport Visiter, January 13, 1874, page 3
12. ↑ "Valuable Leasehold Property", Southport Visiter, January 6, 1874, page 4
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} Smellie (Rev.), "Tombstones Of Rothesay Churchyards", Buteshire Natural History Society, vol. 10, 1930
14. ↑ National Records of Scotland, Statutory registers for deaths, 558/101, Rothersay, Bute, 1895, No. 101
15. ↑ Tuke, James H. (James Hack), 1819-1896. Irish Distress And Its Remedies. [5th ed.] London: W. Ridgeway, 1880, pp. 27, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044100887355?urlappend=%3Bseq=43%3Bownerid=27021597765633085-47
16. ↑ "The 'Situation' On Tory Island", Londonderry Sentinel, July 2, 1889, page 2
17. ↑ "Mere Musicians", Manchester Courier, March 17, 1860, page 11

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