John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor (28 January 1825 – 1 December 1910) was an English classical scholar, writer and

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

activist.

Biography

Early life and education

Mayor was born at

Baddegama Baddegama is a main town in Galle District, Southern Province, Sri Lanka. Baddegama is accessible from the Southern Expressway, and is located from the Baddegama Expressway Inter Exchange and from Colombo. The main livelihood for the town wa ...

British Ceylon British Ceylon (; ), officially British Settlements and Territories in the Island of Ceylon with its Dependencies from 1802 to 1833, then the Island of Ceylon and its Territories and Dependencies from 1833 to 1931 and finally the Island of Cey ...

(now

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

) the son of Rev. Robert Mayor and Charlotte Bickersteth. His mother came from the prominent Bickersteth family and was the sister of

Henry Bickersteth, 1st Baron Langdale Henry Bickersteth, 1st Baron Langdale, PC (18 June 1783 – 18 April 1851), a member of the prominent Bickersteth family, was an English physician, law reformer, and Master of the Rolls. Early life and education Langdale was born on 18 June ...

and Rev. Edward Bickersteth. He was sent to England to be educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...

and

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

Joseph Bickersteth Mayor Joseph Bickersteth Mayor (24 October 1828 – 29 November 1916) was an English writer and scholar. He was best known for his books ''Greek for Beginners'' (1880), ''Sketch of Ancient Philosophy'' (1881), and ''Chapters on English Metre'' (1886). ...

was his younger brother.

Career

From 1863 to 1867, Mayor was librarian of the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, and in 1872 succeeded H. A. J. Munro in the

professorship Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, which he held for 28 years. His best-known work, an edition of the thirteen

Satires of Juvenal The ''Satires'' () are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written between the end of the first and the early second centuries A.D. Juvenal is credited with sixteen poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman g ...

, is notable for an extraordinary wealth of illustrative quotations. His ''Bibliographical Clue to Latin Literature'' (1875), based on

Emil Hübner Ernst Willibald Emil Hübner (7 July 183421 February 1901) was a German classical scholar. He was born at Düsseldorf, the son of the historical painter Julius Hübner (1806–1882). After studying at Berlin and Bonn, he traveled extensively wi ...

's ''Grundriss zu Vorlesungen über die römische Litteraturgeschichte'', was a valuable aid to students, and his edition of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

's ''

Second Philippic The "Second Philippic" is an oration that was delivered by the Athenian statesman and orator Demosthenes between 344–343 BC. The speech constitutes the second of the four philippics the orator is said to have delivered. Historical background I ...

'' became widely used. Mayor also edited the English works of

John Fisher John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Rochester from 1504 to 1535 and as chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He is honoured as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Chu ...

, Bishop of Rochester (1876); Thomas Baker's ''History of St John's College, Cambridge'' (1869);

Richard of Cirencester Richard of Cirencester (; before 1340–1400) was a cleric and minor historian of the Benedictine abbey at Westminster. He was highly famed in the 18th and 19th century as the author of ''The Description of Britain'' before it was proved to have b ...

's ''Speculum historiale de gestis regum Angliae 447–1066'' (1863–69);

Roger Ascham Roger Ascham (; 30 December 1568)"Ascham, Roger" in '' The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 617. was an English scholar and didactic writer, famous for his prose style, his pr ...

's ''Schoolmaster'' (new ed., 1883); the ''Latin Heptateuch'' (1889); and the ''

Journal of Philology A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...

''. According to the '' Enciklopedio de Esperanto'', Mayor learned

Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...

in 1907, and gave a historic speech against Esperanto reformists at the

World Congress of Esperanto The World Esperanto Congress (, UK) is an annual Esperanto convention. It has the longest tradition among international Esperanto conventions, with an almost unbroken run for 119 years. The congresses have been held since August 5, 1905, every ye ...

held at Cambridge.

Vegetarianism

Mayor succeeded

Francis William Newman Francis William Newman (27 June 1805 – 4 October 1897) was an English classical scholar and moral philosopher, prolific miscellaneous writer and activist for vegetarianism and other causes. He was the younger brother of John Henry Newman. Th ...

as president of the

Vegetarian Society The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom (VSUK) is a British Registered charity in England, registered charity. It campaigns for dietary changes, licenses Vegetarian Society Approved trademarks for Vegetarianism, vegetarian and Veganism, v ...

in 1884 and remained in that position till his death. He was a strict

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

and

teetotaller Teetotalism is the practice of voluntarily abstaining from the consumption of alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler (US) or teetotaller (UK), or said to be ...

but it was noted that "he never sought to impose his rule of abstinence on others." Mayor authored '' What is Vegetarianism?'', in 1886. His vegetarian writings were published in the book, ''Plain Living and High Thinking'' in 1897. In October 1905, a meeting was held at

Congregational Memorial Hall The Congregational Memorial Hall in Farringdon Street, London was built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Great Ejection of Black Bartholomew's Day, resulting from the 1662 Act of Uniformity 1662, Act of Uniformity which restored the Anglica ...

, London, for octogenarian vegetarians. Speakers in attendance included Mayor (then aged 84), Joseph Wallace,

T. A. Hanson Thomas Anderson Hanson (20 June 1819 – 21 April 1912) was an English merchant and activist. He initially worked for his father's Stuff merchants, stuff merchant firm, George Hanson and Sons, before establishing his own company, T. A. Hanson a ...

, C. P. Newcombe, Samuel Saunders, and Samuel Pitman, brother of

Isaac Pitman Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was an English publisher and teacher of the :English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in ''Stenogr ...

. Mayor ate a strict vegetarian diet and lived off twopence a day. His diet consisted of bread, fruit, porridge and vegetables with lemonade as his only drink.

Death

Mayor died on 1 December 1910 in Cambridge. He is buried in the

Ascension Parish Burial Ground The Ascension Parish Burial Ground, formerly known as the burial ground for the parish of St Giles and St Peter's, is a cemetery off Huntingdon Road in Cambridge, England. Many notable University of Cambridge academics are buried there, includ ...

in Cambridge.

Legacy

Mayor's life and work are idiosyncratically and somewhat unsympathetically described in ''

Juvenal Decimus Junius Juvenalis (), known in English as Juvenal ( ; 55–128), was a Roman poet. He is the author of the '' Satires'', a collection of satirical poems. The details of Juvenal's life are unclear, but references in his works to people f ...

's Mayor: The Professor Who Lived on 2d. a Day'' by J. G. W. Henderson.

Selected publications

''Nicholas Ferrar: Two Lives''
(1855)
''Early statutes of the College of St. John at Cambridge in the University of Cambridge''
(1859) *''Advent Warnings: a Sermon'' (1863)
''History of the College of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge''
(with Thomas Baker, 1869) *''Affiliation of Local Colleges to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge'' (1874)
''Bibliographical Clue to Latin Literature''
(1875)
''Modicus Cibi Medicus Sibi, Or, Nature Her Own Physician''
(1880) *'' What is Vegetarianism?'' (1886)
''The Church and the Life of the Poor''
(1889)
''The Latin Heptateuch''
(1889)
''Thirteen Satires of Juvenal''
(1889) *''Spain, Portugal: the Bible'' (1892) *''Plain Living and High Thinking'' (1897)
''Mercy, Not Curiosity, the Mother of Medicine''
(1898)
''Cambridge Under Queen Anne''
(1911)
''Twelve Cambridge Sermons''
(1911)

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayor, John Eyton Bickersteth 1825 births 1910 deaths 19th-century English male writers 20th-century English male writers Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Bickersteth family Burials in Cambridgeshire Cambridge University Librarians English book editors English classical scholars English Esperantists English magazine editors English temperance activists English vegetarianism activists Fellows of the British Academy Kennedy Professors of Latin People associated with the Vegetarian Society People educated at Shrewsbury School Scholars of Latin literature Vegetarianism writers