Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mottershead, Joseph
MOTTERSHEAD, JOSEPH (1688–1771), dissenting minister, son of Joseph Mottershead, yeoman, was born near Stockport, Cheshire, on 17 Aug. 1688. He was educated at Attercliffe Academy under Timothy Jollie [q. v.], and afterwards studied for a year under Matthew Henry [q. v.] at Chester. After license he preached (1710–12) at Kingsley, in the parish of Frodsham, Cheshire. On 5 Aug. 1712 he was ordained at Knutsford as successor to Samuel Lawrence [q. v.] at Nantwich. Matthew Henry visited him in 1713, and died at his house in 1714. In 1717 Mottershead became minister of Cross Street Chapel, Manchester, and held this post till his death. His colleagues were Joshua Jones [see under Jones, Jeremiah], John Seddon (1719–1769) [q. v.], and Robert Gore (1748–1779). When the Young Pretender entered Manchester in November 1745, Mottershead was selected as hostage for a pecuniary fine, but he had timely warning and made his escape. During his protracted ministry at Manchester, Mottershead, whom Halley calls ‘a very quiet peaceable man,’ passed from Calvinism to a type of Arianism. About 1756 there was a secession from the congregation owing to the Socinian tenets of Seddon, his colleague and son-in-law. Mottershead died on 4 Nov. 1771, and was buried near the pulpit in his meeting-house. His portrait, by Pickering, was engraved by William Pether [q. v.] He married, first, at Kingsley, the eldest daughter of Bennett of Hapsford, Cheshire; she died in October 1718, leaving four children; his only son was educated at Edinburgh as a physician, but took Anglican orders, acted as curate in Manchester, and was lost at sea as chaplain of a man-of-war; his eldest daughter married (February 1743) Seddon, his colleague; his second daughter, Sarah, married John Jones, founder of the banking house of Jones, Loyd, & Co., whose grandson was Samuel Jones Loyd, first baron Overstone [q. v.] He married, secondly, in January 1721, Margaret (d. 31 Jan. 1740), widow of Nathaniel Glaskell of Manchester; he was her third husband. He married, thirdly, in June 1742, Abigail (d. 28 Dec. 1753), daughter of Chewning Blackmore [see under Blackmore, William].
Mottershead published, besides two sermons (1719–1745), ‘Religious Discourses,’ &c., Glasgow, 1759, 8vo. Under the signature ‘Theophilus’ he contributed essays to Priestley's ‘Theological Repository,’ 1769, i. 173, sq., 225 sq., and 1771, iii. 112 sq. He also published a revised edition of Matthew Henry's ‘Plain Catechism’ (no date).
[Biographical notice in Toulmin's Memoirs of S. Bourn, 1808, pp. 251 sq.; Urwick's Nonconformity in Cheshire, 1864, pp. 129 sq.; Halley's Lancashire, 1869, ii. 364, 447; Wade's Rise of Nonconformity in Manchester, 1880, pp. 34 sq.; Turner's Nonconformist Register of Heywood and Dickenson, 1881, pp. 215, 231, 232, 276; Baker's Mem. of a Dissenting Chapel, 1884, pp. 27 sq., 141 sq.; Nightingale's Lancashire Nonconformity (1893), v. 97 sq.]