George Jacob Holyoake
| George Holyoake | |
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| Born |
George Jacob Holyoake 13 April 1817 Birmingham, Warwickshire, England |
| Died | 22 January 1906 (aged 88) Brighton, Sussex, England |
| Occupation | Newspaper editor |
| Spouse(s) | Eleanor Williams |
George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 – 22 January 1906), was a British secularist, co-operator, and newspaper editor. He coined the term "secularism" in 1851 and the term "jingoism" in 1878. He edited a Secularist paper, the Reasoner, from 1846 to June 1861, and a Co-operative paper, The English Leader, from 1864-67.
George Jacob Holyoake was born in Birmingham, where his father worked as a whitesmith and his mother as a button maker. He attended a dame school, but began working half-days at the same foundry as his father at the age of eight and also learned the whitesmithing trade. At eighteen he began attending lectures at the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute, where he discovered the socialist writings of Robert Owen and eventually became an assistant lecturer. He married Eleanor Williams in 1839 and decided to become a full-time teacher, but was rejected for promotion because of his socialist views. Unable to obtain a full-time teaching position, Holyoake instead took a job as an Owenite Social Missionary. His first post was in Worcester, and the following year he was transferred to a more important position in Sheffield.
Holyoake joined Charles Southwell in dissenting from the official policy of Owenism that lecturers should take a religious oath, to enable them to take collections on Sundays. Southwell had founded the atheist Oracle of Reason, and was soon imprisoned because of its contents. Holyoake took over as editor, having moved to an atheist position as a result of his experiences.
Holyoake was influenced by the French philosopher of science, Auguste Comte, notable in the discipline of sociology and famous for the doctrine of positivism. Comte had himself attempted to establish a secular 'religion of humanity' to fulfil the cohesive function of traditional religion. Holyoake was an acquaintance of Harriet Martineau, the English translator of various works by Comte and perhaps the first female sociologist. She wrote to him excitedly upon reviewing Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859.
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