Priest ley, Joseph

E., 1733-1804. A celebrated English scientist and Unitarian theologian, who came to the United States in 1794 and settled in North umber land, Pennsylvania. From 1780 to 1791 he had been pastor of a Unitarian chapel in Birmingham, but in the latter year his house and chapel were burned by a mob. He was one of the foremost scientists of his time, the discovery of oxygen being his most important contribution to scientific knowledge. Among his many works are: Rudiments of English Grammar; Theory of Language and Universal Grammar; History and Present State of Electricity (1767); Vision, Light, and Colours; Experiments and Observations relating to Natural Philosophy; Familiar Letters to the People of Birmingham; General History of the Christian Church; Notes on all the Books of Scripture; The Doctrines of Heathen Philosophy compared with those of Revelation. A collection of his Theological and Miscellaneous Works (excluding those upon science) appeared in twenty-six volumes in 1817-1832. See Brougham’s Lives of Philosophers; Dictionary of National Biography, volume 46.