John Oswald (revolutionary)

For other people named John Oswald, see John Oswald (disambiguation).

John Oswald (c. 1760 – 14 September 1793) was a Scottish army officer, philosopher, poet, journalist and revolutionary. Initially an officer in the British Army, he became disillusioned with colonialism while serving in India and adopted vegetarianism after living among Hindu communities. On returning to Britain, he became involved in radical literary and political circles in London, contributing to journals and publishing works advocating republicanism, direct democracy, atheism, animal rights, and vegetarianism.

John Oswald
Frontispiece of The Cry of Nature (1791). Caption reads: "The butcher's knife hath laid low the delight of a fond dam, & the darling of Nature is now stretched in gore upon the ground."
Born	c. 1760 Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	(1793-09-14)14 September 1793 (aged 33) Thouars, Deux-Sèvres, France
Other names	Ignotus, Sylvester Otway, H. K.
Citizenship	Great Britain French First Republic (from 1792)
Occupations	Philosopher poet journalist revolutionary
Known for	The Cry of Nature (1791) radical republicanism during the French Revolution early advocacy of vegetarianism
Spouses	Louisa (died before 1784) Bathesheba Fagge Owen ​ ​ (m. 1784)​
Children	3
Military career
Allegiance	Great Britain France
Branch	British Army (1776/1777–1783) French Revolutionary Army (1792–1793)
Rank	Lieutenant (British Army) Commander (French Revolutionary Army)
Unit	18th Regiment of Foot 42nd Regiment of Foot
Conflict	American Revolutionary War Anglo-Mysore wars Second Anglo-Mysore War French Revolutionary Wars War in the Vendée  †

Oswald moved to Paris in 1790, where he joined the Jacobin Club, edited revolutionary newspapers, and became a commander in the French Revolutionary Army. He was killed in action during the War in the Vendée in 1793. His best-known work, The Cry of Nature; or, an Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals (1791), presents a political and ethical critique of meat consumption and is regarded as an early text in the Western tradition of animal rights and vegetarian philosophy.

Biography

Early life

Oswald was born in Edinburgh around 1760.^{[1][note 1]} Contemporary sources differ on his family background. According to one account, his father, also named John Oswald, was a goldsmith of considerable learning who also operated a coffee house in Edinburgh.^[1] Another states that it was his mother who kept "John's Coffee-house".^[5]

He was apprenticed to a goldsmith^[1] or jeweller.^[6] He learned Latin and Greek at a young age and acquired knowledge of Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese over the course of his life.^[1]

Accounts of his early military career vary. According to one version, he enlisted as a private in the 18th Regiment of Foot around 1776 or 1777, was promoted to sergeant due to his education, and later used money, either from a legacy or a marriage dowry, to purchase his discharge and a commission as an ensign in the 42nd Regiment of Foot.^[1][5]

He briefly served during the American Revolutionary War and, in 1780, was commissioned as a lieutenant in the newly raised second battalion of the 42nd Foot, which was then sent to India to fight in the Second Anglo-Mysore War.^[5] Before departing, he married his first wife, Louisa, with whom he had two sons.^[1]

Oswald in India

During the voyage to India, he reportedly fought a duel with Colonel Norman Macleod.^[1] Although Oswald was not the instigator, they exchanged two shots without injury. Upon arriving in India, due to limited personal funds he did not dine with the officers' mess and instead subsisted on the standard rations issued to enlisted soldiers. Oswald served for the duration of the Second Anglo-Mysore War, which had effectively ended by 1783. While in India, he had begun to express doubts over both his military role there and colonialism.^[5]

These sentiments have been attributed to two primary reasons; the first was that due to Oswald's low social position and limited financial resources he was held in low regard by his fellow officers. The second was that Oswald had developed a strong appreciation for the local cultures he encountered in India, which "led him to critically reflect on the colonial enterprise", an unusual stance among contemporary Europeans. Through his contact with Indian cultures, Oswald was introduced to and adopted vegetarianism. All these reasons eventually led him to resign his officer's commission and leave the British army.^[7][8]

Return to Britain

Oswald returned overland to Britain in 1783.^[8] His first wife having died, he married Bathesheba Fagge Owen (bapt. 1759) in 1784; they had a daughter, Jane, and an infant son.^[1]

During the 1780s, Oswald moved to London and was active in its literary and political circles. He worked on the Political Herald and Review, under the pseudonym Ignotus, and co-published The British Mercury with James Ridgway, which featured illustrations by James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson. He also reported parliamentary debates for the London Gazetteer and took part in public lectures and debates, including at the Society of Free Debate in 1790.^[1]

Writing under the pseudonym Sylvester Otway, he published both poetry and political pamphlets, including Review of the Constitution of Great Britain (1784), Ranae Comicae Evangelizantes (1786), Euphrosyne; or, An Ode to Beauty (1788), and The Cry of Nature (1791). By this time, he was associated with figures such as Thomas Paine, John Horne Tooke, and James Mackintosh, and was recognised for his revolutionary sympathies in both England and France. His 1793 work Constitution for the Universal Commonwealth was circulated alongside writings by Paine, Sieyès, and Mirabeau.^[1]

The Cry of Nature

Title page of The Cry of Nature (1791)

Oswald's encounter with Hindu vegetarian practices during his time in India had a lasting influence on his ethical outlook, and contributed to the ideas he later articulated in his 1791 work, The Cry of Nature; or, an Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals.^[8] The book is considered a significant early contribution to the development of vegetarian thought in the Western tradition.^[9]

In the book, Oswald argued, similarly to his contemporary Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that modern society was at odds with innate human nature. He maintained that humans possess a natural disposition toward mercy and compassion, particularly toward animals. Oswald suggested that if individuals were required to directly witness or carry out the killing of animals, vegetarianism would be more widely adopted. However, the division of labour, he argued, allowed people to consume meat while remaining detached from its ethical consequences. He also claimed that societal conditioning had numbed people to their natural empathetic responses. Although Oswald promoted compassion and practised vegetarianism, he did not espouse pacifism.^[10]

Oswald in France

Revolutionary activity in Paris

By May 1790, Oswald had settled in Paris and became actively engaged in revolutionary politics. He attended sessions of the National Assembly and presented a patriotic ode in September of that year. During this period, he came into contact with a range of prominent revolutionary figures, including Thomas Cooper, Wolfe Tone, Camille Desmoulins, Georges Danton, and Théroigne de Méricourt.^[1]

Contemporary descriptions of Oswald note that he was of average or middle height but had a commanding or noble presence.^[6] In Paris, he was said to affect a Roman style of dress, with an open collar and hair styled à la Brutus.^[6] One account described him as having a "heroic and grave face, sober manners and [being] a bit stiff."^[1]

Journalism and political involvement

Between 1791 and 1793, he co-edited the journal Chronique du Mois with Nicolas Bonneville, contributing to the Cercle Social, a reformist intellectual circle that included Brissot and Condorcet. He also worked briefly on the English-language newspaper Universal Patriot, which aimed to report on political developments in both Britain and France.^[1]

In 1792, Oswald published an expanded French edition of his 1784 pamphlet, Review of the Constitution of Great Britain. The work reflected radical political views that aligned with prevailing revolutionary sentiment in France at the time. Its reception facilitated his admission to the Jacobin Club, where he became a prominent figure among the English-speaking supporters of the French Revolution.^[5]

Later that year, Oswald became secretary of the British Club in Paris, a group of British expatriates supporting the French Revolution. He addressed the Jacobin Club on multiple occasions, published La tactique du peuple, and produced a subsidised English translation of Collot d'Herbois's Almanach des père Gérard.^[1]

Military service and death

Oswald's death certificate

Oswald was granted honorary French citizenship in September 1792 and appointed a commander in the French Revolutionary Army.^[1] His two sons joined him in service as drummers. Oswald's strict disciplinary approach made him unpopular among his troops, and his attempt to replace muskets with specially designed pikes met resistance, with soldiers reportedly refusing to train with them.^[5]

In May 1793, he took command of the Parisian battalion of pikemen, later designated the 14th battalion of Paris, and joined the fighting in the War in the Vendée, reportedly distinguishing himself in several engagements. Although his death was previously attributed to either Les Ponts-de-Cé or Thouars, official records confirm that he died at Thouars on 14 September 1793. His death certificate, filed under the name "Jean Oswale" by Major General Gabriel Rey, lists his age as 33.^[4]

The exact circumstances of his death remain uncertain. It is likely he was killed in combat between Republican forces and Vendéen troops led by Louis Marie de Lescure.^[4] Some accounts report that his sons were killed alongside him,^[11] while others state that they were wounded but survived.^[1]

Contemporary sources differ on the details. One account states that Oswald was killed by a cannonball and his sons by grapeshot;^[11] another that he and one of his sons were shot while attempting to rally their retreating battalion under heavy fire;^[8] and another that disgruntled soldiers may have used the opportunity to kill Oswald, his sons, and another English officer due to his unpopularity.^[5]

Philosophy

Political thought

Title page of the third edition of Review of the Constitution of Great Britain (1793)

John Oswald's political philosophy reflected a distinctive synthesis of Scottish Enlightenment thought, radical egalitarianism, and classical republicanism. While he was long overshadowed by better-known contemporaries, recent scholarship has highlighted the originality of his contributions to debates on commerce, property, and democratic government.^[12]

Oswald drew on the ideas of thinkers such as David Hume, Adam Smith, and Adam Ferguson, particularly in his writings for the Political Herald and Review and The British Mercury. He adopted the "four stages theory" of social development and praised the social benefits of commerce, while simultaneously criticising hereditary privilege and advocating for direct democracy and civic virtue. His Review of the Constitution of Great Britain (1791; revised 1792) opposed representative government and promoted legislation by popular acclamation.^[12]

He also attacked the concentration of property and defended the idea of land as a common inheritance, influenced by the work of William Ogilvie. His final political text, Le gouvernement du peuple (1793), laid out a detailed plan for a universal republic based on decentralised cantonal assemblies and mass approval of laws, going beyond the proposals of even his Jacobin allies.^[12]

Oswald's political and military thought were closely linked. Concerned that modern commercial societies might lose their capacity for self-defence, he advocated for a citizen militia and published a manual, La tactique du peuple (1792), promoting military training for the people without reliance on standing armies. These ideas combined elements of classical civic humanism with Enlightenment-era commercial republicanism.^[12]

Animal rights and vegetarianism

In his 1791 treatise The Cry of Nature; or, an Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals, Oswald advanced a radical position for his time by rejecting the traditional human–animal hierarchy and advocating for the autonomy of nonhuman animals. Unlike many contemporaries focused on animal welfare, Oswald argued that society must heed the voices of animals themselves, presenting a moral and political critique that challenged established norms.^[13] He asserted that hunting was morally indefensible, that killing animals for food was unnecessary, and that animals possess feelings and rights.^[14]

Oswald viewed vegetarianism not only as a personal ethical stance but also as a form of political resistance. In The Cry of Nature, he framed abstention from meat as a rejection of tyranny and brutality, linking it to broader calls for democratic revolution. His philosophy combined compassion for animals with a critique of authoritarianism, making vegetarianism both a moral and political statement against oppression and injustice.^[7]

Oswald practised his beliefs rigorously in daily life; according to one account, he abstained even more strictly than the Pythagoreans, living on fruits and fruit juices alone, and when dining in company, he would eat only potatoes, leaving the meat untouched.^[6]

Religious views

Oswald was a professed atheist, a position consistently reflected in his writings and noted by contemporaries such as Henry Redhead Yorke. In his 1786 satirical pamphlet, Ranae Comicae Evangelizantes, he criticised religious enthusiasm and mocked Methodist preachers, expressing his opposition to organised religion.^[12]

He reiterated his irreligious stance in revolutionary France. In Le gouvernement du peuple (1793), Oswald argued against the role of religion in public life and government, describing Christianity as an "imposture" and aligning himself with radical Enlightenment secularism. Though exposed to Hindu doctrines during his military service in India, he rejected the theological elements of that tradition, including the concept of reincarnation.^[12]

Reception

Oswald received some recognition during his lifetime. He was included in Francis Marshall's Catalogue of Five Hundred Celebrated Authors of Great Britain, Now Living (1788), which described him in a fourteen-line entry.^[15]

His political views attracted both support and criticism. He was attacked in the British press as a dangerous Jacobin.^[12] In March 1793, Edmund Burke cited Oswald's Constitution for the Universal Commonwealth in the House of Commons, describing it as an example of radical democratic thought.^[15] His name became associated in England with violent republicanism, while in France he was seen as part of the expatriate British revolutionary network, though not fully assimilated into its ranks.^[12]

Oswald's name later appeared in literary contexts. William Wordsworth used the name "Oswald" for the antagonist in his play The Borderers (written 1795–1797, published 1842), though it is unclear whether this was intended as a direct reference to John Oswald.^[15]

Oswald's service in the French Revolutionary Army attracted attention in Britain. At one point, the Scottish author Dr. William Thomson proposed an unsubstantiated theory that Oswald and Napoleon Bonaparte were the same person, citing similarities in character and interests. The claim was dismissed after General Pasquale Paoli affirmed his personal knowledge of Bonaparte's early life, including having acted as his godfather.^[5]

Legacy

In the 19th century, Oswald was portrayed as a precursor to socialism and utopian thought, notably by André Lichtenberger. In the 20th- and 21st-centuries, scholars such as David V. Erdman and Anna Plassart have reassessed his intellectual significance, particularly his fusion of Scottish Enlightenment ideas with radical political practice.^[12]

As described by Stephen F. Eisenman, Oswald's work represents a foundational contribution to the development of modern animal rights philosophy, emphasising the need to recognise animals as sentient beings with their own agency, rather than merely as objects of human compassion or utility.^[13]

In 1996, a small Parisian publisher, Éditions de la passion, released a collection of Oswald's short texts under the title Le gouvernement du peuple : Plan de constitution pour la république universelle.^[8]

In 2022, French researcher Frédéric Augris confirmed the long-disputed location of John Oswald's death by discovering his official death certificate in the civil records of Thouars. While Oswald's biographers had previously debated whether he died at Thouars or Les Ponts-de-Cé during the War in the Vendée, the certificate—located by Augris while examining archival materials from over 60 communes in northern Deux-Sèvres—definitively places his death in Thouars on 14 September 1793.^[16]

Publications

• Review of the Constitution of Great Britain (London, 1784)
• Ranae Comicae Evangelizantes: or, The Comic Frogs Turned Methodist (as Sylvester Otway; London: Mucklow, 1786)
• The British Mercury (also served as editor; London: J. Ridgway; L. Macdonald, established 1787), contributed essays, articles,^[17] and satirical short stories, including "The Brain-Sucker: Or, the Distress of Authorship"^[15]
• The Alarming Progress of French Politics: A Pamphlet on the Commercial Treaty (London: Jameson, 1787)
• Euphrosyne; or, An Ode to Beauty (as Sylvester Otway; addressed to Mrs. Crouch of Drury Lane Theatre; London, 1788)
• Poems, to Which Is Added "The Humours of John Bull", an Operatic Farce; in Two Acts (as Sylvester Otway; London: Murray, 1789)
• The Cry of Nature; or, An Appeal to Mercy and Justice on Behalf of the Persecuted Animals (London: J. Johnson, 1791)
• Chronique du Mois (co-editor with Nicolas Bonneville; 1791–1793)
• La tactique du peuple; ou, Nouveau principe pour les évolutions militaires, par lequel le peuple peut facilement apprendre à combattre par lui-même et pour lui-même, sans le secours dangereux des troupes réglées ("The Tactics of the People; or, A New Principle for Military Manoeuvres, by Which the People Can Easily Learn to Fight by Themselves and for Themselves, Without the Dangerous Aid of Regular Troops"; Paris: Gueffier, c. 1790s)
• The Government of the People; or, A Sketch of a Constitution for the Universal Commonwealth (Paris: The English Press, 1792). Translated and published as Le gouvernement du peuple, ou Plan de constitution pour la République universelle in 1793. Also translated into Dutch as De volksregering, of oprichtingsplan voor de universele republiek

See also

• Robert Pigott, an English political radical, vegetarian, and reformer of food and dress. After selling his estates in 1776, he moved to the continent, supported the French Revolution, and promoted vegetarian diets for prisoners.
• Vegetarianism in the Romantic Era

Notes

1. Some earlier sources, including Henry S. Salt and Howard Williams, give his birth year as 1730.^[2][3] However, his rediscovered death certificate records his age as 33 at the time of death, placing his birth around 1760.^[4]