Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley (13 March 1733 – 8 February 1804) was an English chemist, philosopher, clergyman, and teacher. He is known as the discoverer of oxygen.^[1] He was a Unitarian.^[2]

Joseph Priestley
Priestley by William Artaud
Born	13 March 1733 Fieldhead, Yorkshire, England
Died	8 February 1804 Northumberland, Pennsylvania

The attack on Joseph Priestley's home, Fairhill, at Sparkbrook, Birmingham on 14 July 1791

On 1 August 1774, Priestly identified oxygen in his laboratory at Bowood House in Wiltshire, England.^[3]

The Priestley Riots

The Priestley Riots (or the Birmingham Riots of 1791) took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in Birmingham, England.

The rioters' main targets were religious dissenters, led by Priestley. Both local and national issues stirred the rioters. But at the heart was the Dissenters' attempts to gain full civil rights, and their support of the French Revolution (though not its methods).

The riots started with an attack on the Royal Hotel, Birmingham. There a banquet was organised in sympathy with the French Revolution. Then, beginning with Priestley's church and home, the rioters attacked or burned four Dissenting chapels, twenty-seven houses, and several businesses. Many of them were drunk. They had found liquor while looting, or with which they were bribed. A small core could not be bribed, however, and stayed sober. The rioters burned not only the homes and chapels of the Dissenters, but also the homes of people they associated with Dissenters, such as members of the scientific Lunar Society.^[4][5]