Joseph Livesey, the poor people's friend
Joseph Livesey: the Walton weaver
The
city of Preston has been ‘first’ on several occasions: first
public telephone boxes, first public gas lighting outside London, first
professional team in the Football League and... the first Kentucky Fried
Chicken shop opened here. Institutions had their roots here, too. The
Mormon Church, now powerful and influential in America, started here.
Preston has seen quite a few famous folk and they are commemorated on
blue plaques and in the organisations they left behind. None more so than
Preston’s famous son, Joseph Livesey and his Temperance Movement.
Born in Walton-le-Dale in 1794 and orphaned at the age of seven, he grew
up with his grandparents and followed his grandfather’s trade of
hand loom weaving. In his early life he knew poverty and privation and
so empathised with the poor and needy. He was raised as a Baptist but
felt constrained by what he considered to be "the narrow bounds of
sectarianism". He saw himself as a Christian activist and he closely
studied the New Testament and tried to base his life on the teachings
of Jesus Christ. He was inspired by verses such as "Bear ye one another’s
burden and so fulfill the law of Christ".
He was a shrewd business man and his transformation from hand loom weaver
to cheese factor came about when he purchased two cheeses from a farmer
on Preston Market and then sold them in portions from a stall near the
end of Stoneygate. By undercutting the farmers at the Market, he very
soon became one of the most affluent cheese factors in the county. Prosperity,
however, did not affect his concern for those who needed help. He believed
in offering practical assistance to those needing it and with this in
mind, he formed a ‘Labour Association’ (in reality, a job
creation project). In 1847 when unemployment was high, he assisted in
the creation of a scheme to repair the footpath which ran along the northern
reaches of the River Ribble. When the Cotton Famine bit in Preston, Livesey
was there with associates, forming a Relief Committee. While some folk
talked about the social problems, Livesey ‘did’ something
about them.
He was also prepared to visit the poor, not only in Preston, but in all
the towns and villages he visited. He felt very strongly about workhouses
and the Poor Law Amendment Act and the human tragedies thus caused. In
his travels around Preston and other places, wherever his cheeses took
him, he observed that much of the squalor and distress experienced by
the poor stemmed from alcohol abuse. He set up his Temperance Movement
in Preston in March 1832 and spent the rest of his long life crusading
against the evils of drink. It was his belief that drinking in moderation
(as recommended by society and the medical profession) often led to drunkenness
and dependence upon alcohol. Only total abstinence was acceptable and
his followers were called upon to sign a pledge promising to abstain from
alcoholic beverages.
It was one of his followers, Richard Turner, who coined one of the most
famous words to be connected with the Temperance Movement. A reformed
drinker and ardent follower, he was one day fervently advocating total
abstinence when he is said to have stuttered over the word total. The
result "t-t-t-total" was picked up by Livesey and very soon
came into the language and the word TEETOTAL has appeared in every English
dictionary since that time.
The ideals of the Temperance Movement were embraced by several nonconformist
churches and are still adhered to today. Joseph Livesey called those who
had signed the pledge "the great army of Temperance". His disciple
Dicky Turner observed, "When I go through the streets on Sunday,
it does my soul good to meet so many reformed drunkards well-dressed and
going to their places of worship".
Livesey’s contribution to society was not exclusive to Temperance
and the poor. He was a prolific writer and never missed an opportunity
to attack the Establishment whenever he felt that it was needed. The Corn
Laws had allowed the rich to prosper and the poor to sink further into
poverty. Livesey was an ardent supporter of the campaign for the repeal
of the laws and in 1844 he went into journalism in a big way and launched
the "Preston Guardian". His newspaper was a vehicle to attack
the government and also to promote his temperance ideals.
He was a passionate believer in education. He and his wife Jane ran a
Sunday School for many years teaching not only religion and the Bible
but the basic tools of learning - reading and writing. He was also concerned
with the education of adults and, along with many others, he felt that
Preston ought to have a Mechanics Institute. Being Livesey, he did not
allow the grass to grow under his feet and he set about establishing one
at 21, Cannon Street in 1828.
By 1841 it had outgrown the building and a new home was built in Avenham
Walk. Known, among other titles, as the Avenham Institute, it in turn
became the Harris Institute. Out of the Mechanics Institutes, the Public
Library Movement was born, but that is another story.
He died in 1884 aged ninety. Ten thousand people lined the streets on
the day of his funeral. Flags were flown at half-mast from public buildings
and the blinds were drawn in almost every house from 13, Bank Parade in
Avenham to the Cemetery. His epitaph states that "he died in his
ninety-first year after an honoured life of philanthropy and usefulness
as author and worker, as the pioneer of temperance, the advocate of moral
and social reform and the helper and friend of the poor". Some epitaph,
indeed!
Perhaps today, ‘signing the pledge’ and ‘teetotalism’
are seen in many quarters as old fashioned and narrow. It has to be said,
however, that in the hundred and twenty years or so since Livesey died,
not a lot has changed. Alcoholism still blights lives and causes misery.
"Alcoholics Anonymous" would have no difficulties at all with
Joseph’s aims and beliefs. One might say that they are carrying
on where he left off.
Barbara Hothersall
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