Biography

Joseph Williams Blakesley (1808-85), clergyman and dean of Lincoln, was born at 38 Coleman Street, in the city of London, on 6 March 1808. He entered St Paul's School, London, on 3 October 1819, after which he matriculated with a Stock scholarship and a special exhibition at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, on 3 November 1827. In 1829 Blakesley was president of the Cambridge Union, and in 1830 was elected to a foundation scholarship. He graduated BA in 1831, MA in 1834, and BD on 5 April 1849. He was a wrangler in the mathematical tripos and was placed third in the classical tripos, where his chief strength lay, subsequently obtaining the senior chancellor's medal. He was elected a fellow of Trinity in 1831, became assistant tutor in 1834, and was tutor from 1839 to 1845. He was ordained deacon in 1833 and priest in 1835. In 1845 Blakesley left Cambridge to take up the Trinity College living of Ware, Hertfordshire and from 1850 to 1863 he was classical examiner in the University of London. In 1863 he received a canonry at Canterbury from Lord Palmerston, with whose political views he fully sympathized. In 1860 Palmerston had offered Blakesley the regius professorship of history at Cambridge. In 1872 Blakesley succeeded James Jeremie as dean of Lincoln on Gladstone's recommendation. He died on 18 April 1885, at the deanery, Lincoln, and was buried on 23 April at St Mary Magdalene, Lincoln.

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