Phrenology Research Environment

HOLYOAKE, George Jacob (1817-1906)

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Metadata

Born: 1817

Died: 1906

Editorial Description

Birmingham whitesmith, educated at the Mechanics' Inst, where he became interested in phrenology as well as Owenism, freethought and Chartism; became an Owenite missionary but eventually rejected Owenism and devoted all his attention to the propagation of rational secular religious views, preceding Charles Bradlaugh as the leading secularist in Britain; author of Origins and Nature of Secularism (1896), and Bygones Worth Remembering (1905); unfortunate encounters with BALLY and G. COMBE made him suspicious of some of the motives of phrenologists but he lectured on the subject in the Sheffield Hall of Science in Aug 1841 to a large audience (and presumably at other Owenite Halls of Science around this time); in Feb 1846 he delivered a lecture at the Rationalist Inst, London, on 'The Phrenological Philosophy of George Combe and Dr. Engledue, Including Our Unsettled Personal Reminiscences' [handbill in Combe Coll, NLS: 6.16.99(3)]; in the John St. Inst in Dec 1848 he lectured on "Other Ways of Telling Character Than by Palmistry and Phrenology." (DNB; DLB)

Works as Listed by Roger Cooter (1989)

• 550.1 — 550.1 "Reminiscences of Mr. Geo. Combe--of Bally. --Origins of Mr. Brindley's Agitation.--Ratiocinative Steps in the logic of Phrenology," REASONER, 1 (13 Aug-16 Sept 1846): 161-3, 181-3, 193-4, 225-6.
• 550.2 — 550.2 "Fourteen Nights with George Combe (1838)," and "In Search of Monsieur Bally (1838)," chapters 13 and 14 of his Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1892. HOME, Sir Everard (1756-1832), surgeon and FRS; lecturer on anatomy and surgeon to St. George's Hosp, 1793-1827; first pres Coll Surg; Hunterian orator; med author; delivered the Croonian Lecture on the brain and nerves, Roy Soc, 1821. (DNB)

Editorial Information

550. HOLYOAKE, George Jacob (1817-1906), Birmingham whitesmith,
educated at the Mechanics' Inst, where he became interested in phrenology as well as Owenism, freethought and Chartism; became an
Owenite missionary but eventually rejected Owenism and devoted all
his attention to the propagation of rational secular religious views,
preceding Charles Bradlaugh as the leading secularist in Britain;
author of Origins and Nature of Secularism (1896), and Bygones
Worth Remembering (1905); unfortunate encounters with BALLY and
G. COMBE made him suspicious of some of the motives of phrenologists but he lectured on the subject in the Sheffield Hall of Science


in Aug 1841 to a large audience (and presumably at other Owenite
Halls of Science around this time); in Feb 1846 he delivered a lecture at the Rationalist Inst, London, on 'The Phrenological Philosophy of George Combe and Dr. Engledue, Including Our Unsettled
Personal Reminiscences' [handbill in Combe Coll, NLS: 6.16.99(3)];
in the John St. Inst in Dec 1848 he lectured on "Other Ways of Telling Character Than by Palmistry and Phrenology." (DNB; DLB)