William Priestley (7 May 1771 – 1838) was the third child and second son of Joseph Priestley and his wife Mary Wilkinson. He spent some time in France, before migrating to the US in 1793, taking the oath of citizenship on 8 October 1798. In 1801 he moved to Louisiana, with the intention of establishing a school in Point Coupee Parish. Some time between 1804 and 1807, William purchased a sugar plantation on the west bank of the Mississippi.
William Priestley's early life and character
William Priestley was born in Basinghall Street, Leeds, in the manse associated with Mill Hill Chapel, where his father was minister. He was educated in Bristol in John Prior Estlin's school, before spending two years at Daventry Academy, his father's alma mater, 1787–89. William Priestley was a mild-tempered and softly-spoken bohemian with long brown hair thrown back over his shoulders, and a passion for nature and music. He was a proficient flautist, who spoke French and German, studied Anglo-Saxon texts, and read Norse mythology. He carved wooden chess-pieces, and sculpted clay models of ancient temples. He was not inclined towards a career in commerce. His father, writing to a friend, regretted that William's "temper [frame of mind] and high spirit [zest for life], will hardly suit trade." In this, William and his father were very much alike, for, when he was nineteen, Joseph Priestley himself, had rejected a firm offer of a career in commerce; as a minister at Needham Market, his congregation had objected to Priestley's "gay and airy disposition;" and at Nantwich he had a habit of vaulting over the counter of the grocer's shop at which he lodged. Regrettably some modern historians have misunderstood contemporary word-usage, and have read the clause: "William's temper and high spirit, will hardly suit trade," in a twenty-first-century idiom, mistakenly accusing William of being "too high-spirited and hot-tempered;" and erroneously denouncing him as the "black sheep" of the family.
In the Summer of 1789 William accompanied his uncle William Wilkinson on a business trip through northern Europe and France, and was in Paris during the storming of the Bastille. When William Wilkinson return to England, William Priestley went on to Germany, as tutor to a family in Frankfurt. Despite William's disinclination towards office work, his father was prepared to pay for him to be articled to a merchant, though he baulked at the £1,000 Benjamin Vaughan had wanted. In December 1790, William Russell agreed to take William on as an articled accounts clerk for three years, with a view to him looking after the Russell brothers' interests in America or France. William Priestley was working for the Russells at the time of the Birmingham riots. He insisted on remaining at home, "Fairhill", as his parents fled, initially to ensure that the kitchen fire and candles were fully extinguished. William helped round up numerous young volunteers, with whom he laboured several hours to remove as many of Joseph Priestley's books and manuscripts as they could, continuing to carry books and furniture down the staircase even as the handrails, banisters and treads were being systematically demolished by the leading rioters. After the riots, William remained in Birmingham, gathering up such of his father's books and manuscripts as had survived. In the Autumn of 1791, William joined his father in London, where Joseph Priestley was settling into a new home in Lower Clapton, while William's mother was with his sister at Heath-forge, Wombourne; brother Joseph was working in Manchester; and brother Henry was at school in Bristol. Being Joseph Priestley's only relative in London (apart from his uncle Timothy, minister at Jewin Street chapel), William helped manage the workmen carrying out numerous repairs and works, and helped his father arrange his library and set up his laboratory. William assisted in managing the household, such as it was, and looked after the dietetic needs of his father, who suffered a bowel condition throughout his adult life, with episodes of severe diarrhoea. The noted Unitarian benefactress, Mrs Elizabeth Rayner, was impressed enough by William's practical care and filial concern for his father, to single him out for particular mention in her will.
France (1792)
After his brother Joseph's marriage to Elizabeth Rayner in April 1792, William Priestley travelled to Paris, at the behest of William Russell, who was rebuilding his mercantile business from Gloucester. At Paris on 8 June 1792, President Tardiveau introduced William to the Assemblée législative. William asked M Français to read out his brief address, because of his "voix extrêment faible":