Joseph Phipps (1708 - 1787)

Born 31 Dec 1708 in York, Yorkshire, England

Husband of Sarah (Kendale) Phipps — married about 1 Jan 1760 in Norwich, Norfolk, England

Descendants

Died 14 Apr 1787 at age 78 in Norwich, Norfolk, England

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Biography

Joseph was a Friend (Quaker)

Joseph Phipps excelled "as a clear writer and reasoner. In controversy he avoids calumny, and devotes himself to the statement of evident truth. He is in the great succession of leaders, Robert Barclay, Jonathan Dymond and Caroline Stephen." ~ Dictionary of Quaker Biography

Joseph Phipps was born 31 Dec 1708 at York, England the son of Joseph and Elizabeth Phipps^[1][2] and was raised as a member of the Society of Friends.

He was apprenticed to a shoemaker in London and apparently led a life of excess for it has been written he often found "the necessity of eating his paste till he could finish a pair of shoes."^[3][4] While in London he tried his hand at play-writing and was paid £100 by the Duke of Richmond for the copyright to a play. About this time he reconnected with his Quaker roots, attended Friends' meeting at the Savoy, and came under the influence of Quaker minister Benjamin Kidd. He somehow cut off the publication or production of his play.^[3] In later years he became a coal merchant.

In 1753 he and Quaker minister Ann Mercy Bell undertook street-preaching in London, recounted in "A Summary Account of an Extraordinary Visit to the Metropolis..." He married Sarah Kendale, daughter of Isaac and Ann Kendale [Kendall], on 1 Jul 1760 at Norwich, Norfolk.^[5][6] With Sarah he had a son who died in infancy and three daughters.

He moved to Norwich in 1766 where he passed away 14 Apr 1787^[7] and was interred in the Quaker burial ground.^[8]

Written Works (not a complete listing)

• The Journal of George Fox was edited by Phipps in 1765
• All Swearing Prohibited Under the Gospel
• Animadversions on the Practice of Tithing Under the Gospel
• An Address to the Youth of Norwich
• Brief Remarks on the Arguments Now Used in Support of Divers Ecclesiastical Impositions in this Nation (1769)
• Cursory Observations on a Late Publication, Intitled, An Essay on the Simplicity of Truth, Signed Catholicus
• Dissertations on the Nature and Effect of Christian Baptism, Christian Communion, and Religious Waiting Upon God
• Mens Meeting in Bristol, the 20th of the 7th Month, 1772
• Observations Upon an Anonymous Late Publication, Intituled, a Letter to the Author...(1767)
• The Original and Present State of Man (1773)
• A Reply to a Late Publication of S. Newton, of Norwich, Intituled, An Appendix . . .
• A Summary Account of an Extraordinary Visit to this Metropolis in the Year 1753 by the Ministry of Ann Mercy Bell
• The Vestry Laid Open
• York Quarterly-Meeting, Ninth Month, 1773
• The Winter-Piece: A Poem

Sources

1. ↑ England & Wales, Society of Friends (Quaker) Births 1578-1841 Transcription
2. ↑ England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977 (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F757-QR6)
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Fell-Smith, Charlotte, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, rev R C Allen, 23 Sep 2004
4. ↑ ‘The conversion of Joseph Phipps’, Friends' Monthly Magazine, 1 (1830) [repr. in Journal of Friends' Historical Society, 10 (1913), 138–9] Friends' Monthly Magazine, 1 (1830), 767
5. ↑ England & Wales, Society of Friends (Quaker) Marriages 1578-1841 Transcription
6. ↑ England Marriages (1538-1973) (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJD4-9NK)
7. ↑ England & Wales, Society of Friends (Quaker) Burials 1578-1841 Transcription
8. ↑ England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977 (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FWWK-PJX)

See Also:

• ‘The conversion of Joseph Phipps’, Friends' Monthly Magazine, 1 (1830) [repr. in Journal of Friends' Historical Society, 10 (1913), 138–9]
• Friends' Monthly Magazine, 1 (1830), 767
• J. Phipps, ‘A few words to the public in behalf of the people called Quakers’, RS Friends, Lond.[London, 24th 1st mo. 1757]
• J. Phipps, ‘The government being engaged in a war proposes to borrow …’, 1781, RS Friends, Lond. [handbill]