Josiah Pratt

Josiah Pratt (1768–1844) was an English evangelical clergyman, involved in publications and the administration of missionary work. His son John Henry Pratt became Archdeacon of Calcutta and was famous for his work in geology.

The second son of Josiah Pratt, a Birmingham manufacturer, he was born in Birmingham on 21 December 1768. With his two younger brothers, Isaac and Henry, Josiah was educated at Barr House school, six miles from Birmingham. When he was twelve years old his father took him into his business; but at the age of seventeen he obtained his father's permission to enter holy orders. After some private tuition, he matriculated on 28 June 1789 from St Edmund Hall, Oxford, at that time the stronghold of evangelicalism in the university. His college tutor was Isaac Crouch, and they formed a lifelong friendship. He graduated B.A. and was ordained deacon in 1792, becoming assistant curate to William Jesse, rector of Dowles, near Bewdley. He remained at Dowles until 1795, when, on receiving priest's orders, he became assistant minister under Richard Cecil, the evangelical minister of St John's Chapel, Bedford Row.

On 7 September 1797 he married and settled at 22 Doughty Street. There he received pupils, among them being Daniel Wilson, with whom he became close friends. In 1799, at a meeting of the Eclectic Society, which met in the vestry of St John's, he argued for a periodical publication. The first number of the Christian Observer appeared in January 1802 under his editorship. After six weeks he resigned the editorship to Zachary Macaulay.

Pratt also took part in the meetings of the Eclectic (18 March and 12 April 1799) at which the Church Missionary Society was effectively founded. On 8 December 1802 he was elected secretary of the missionary society in succession to Thomas Scott. He kept the post for more than 21 years. From 1813 to 1815 he travelled through England for the society. He took part in the establishment of a seminary at Islington for the training of missionaries, which was planned in 1822, and opened by him in 1825. On 23 April 1824, he resigned his post to Edward Bickersteth, assistant secretary. He set up the Missionary Register, of which the first number appeared in January 1813.

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