John Tweddell

John Tweddell (1769–1799) was an English classical scholar and traveller.

The son of Francis Tweddell, he was born on 1 June 1769 at Threepwood, near Hexham, Northumberland. He was educated at Hartforth school, near Richmond, Yorkshire, under Matthew Raine (father of Matthew Raine FRS) at Hatton, Warwickshire under Samuel Parr, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. and won the second chancellor's medal in 1790, proceeding M.A. in 1793. He gained all the Browne medals in 1788 and two of the three in 1789, and the members' prize in 1791. He was elected Fellow of Trinity in 1792.

Tweddell had been a pupil of the reformer Thomas Jones, who had backed him for the fellowship. In a Latin prize essay read out in a crowded Cambridge Senate House in 1792, on the topic An imperium magnum cum æquâ omnium Libertate constare possit? (Can a great empire exist with equal freedom for all?), Tweddell supported liberty.

Tweddell entered the Middle Temple in 1792. He had acquired a Whig outlook at Parr's house. At that period Tweddell was involved in radical politics, writing to Parr about the formation of the Society of the Friends of the People. Later, in November 1792, he saw darker trends. He had a high opinion of the radical lawyer Felix Vaughan. From 1793 to 1795 he associated with William Godwin, and a radical circle that included William Frend and James Losh.

When Joseph Priestley emigrated to America in 1793, Tweddell (with Frend, Godfrey Higgins and Losh) presented him with an inkstand. Higgins wrote that Tweddell had written the inscription, and took the substantial piece of silver plate, to which many had subscribed, to Priestley with the other three; Higgins had met Tweddell at a "literary club" that year. In July 1794 Tweddell met Isabel Gunning, daughter of Sir Robert Gunning, 1st Baronet, asked her to marry him, and on being refused because Sir Robert would not consent, started a correspondence.

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