James Martineau was born on 21st April, 1805 in Norwich. He was the youngest child of a textile manufacturer, and his sister Harriet, a pioneer feminist, achieved some celebrity as a writer in America. James studied for the ministry at Manchester College, which was then situated in York, and his first ministry was here in Dublin. He became assistant minister to the Unitarian congregation in Eustace Street (the building is still there), which eventually amalgamated with the Strand Street congregation here at St. Stephen’s Green. Apart from the sadness occasioned by the death of his infant daughter (she is buried in the Huguenot cemetery), he enjoyed his time in Dublin, but he felt obliged to resign his ministry because he could not in conscience accept the regium donum, ‘the royal gift’, 100 pounds sterling paid annually to Protestant ministers. He considered it unfair that Catholic priests did not receive this money from the State. He went back to England and took up a ministry in Liverpool, eventually becoming Principal of Manchester College (which by then had moved to London!) He was to become one of the most distinguished theologians of the 19th century, writing books until well into his nineties.
On his 83rd birthday he received a letter signed by (among others) Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, William James, Ernst Renan, and James Russell Lowell, which read, in part: ‘We desire to express to you, on your 83rd birthday, the feelings of reverence and affection which are entertained towards you, not only by your own Communion, but by members of other Christian Churches who are acquainted with your character and scholarship’. We have most of his works in the Ministers’ Library, should anyone feel inclined to study his thought.
B.D.