Jonathan Odell (25 September 1737 – 25 November 1818) was a
Loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
who lived during the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
.
Early life and career
Odell was born in the city of
Newark in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
on September 25, 1737.
He was the only son of John Odell, a descendant of
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
migrant William Odell, who immigrated from England to
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
in 1639. His mother, Temperance Dickinson, was the daughter of Reverend
Jonathan Dickinson, co-founder and first president of the College of New Jersey, which later became
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
.
He graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1754. Odell then briefly taught at a grammar school attached to the college from 1755 to 1756.
Although he had studied medicine, instead of becoming a doctor he joined the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
ministry. As a minister he preached at parish priest at
Burlington and
Mount Holly, both in New Jersey. He was inducted into the revived
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 1768.
The American Revolution
When the revolution broke out Odell became a strong
loyalist
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
and wrote poetry promoting the loyalist cause. He was brought before the
New Jersey Provincial Congress for such actions and on July 20, 1776, he was ordered to sign a loyalty oath and remain within eight miles of the Burlington County courthouse. In December of that year, he fled to New York, with the help of local citizens, and served as an administrator and satiric poet-propagandist for the British. After the war in 1784 he emigrated to
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...
, Canada, where he received the post of provincial secretary as a reward for his loyalty.
"Jonathan Odell Collection, 1750-1780: Finding Aid C1151".
Accessed December 5, 2008. He remained in New Brunswick and died in Fredericton
Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River (Bay of Fundy), Saint John River, ...
.
His daughter Lucy Anne is buried in the Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
The Old Burying Ground (also known as St. Paul's Church (Halifax), St. Paul's Church Cemetery) is a historic cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located at the intersection of Barrington Street and Spring Garden Road in Downtown Halif ...
.
Odell was portrayed by George Sanders
George Henry Sanders (3 July 1906 – 25 April 1972) was a British actor and singer whose career spanned over 40 years. His heavy, upper-class English accent and smooth bass voice often led him to be cast as sophisticated but villainous charac ...
as a highly intelligent but cynical loyalist in the 1955 Hollywood film ''The Scarlet Coat
''The Scarlet Coat '' is a 1955 American historical drama and swashbuckler in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, directed by John Sturges. It stars Cornel Wilde, Michael Wilding, George S ...
''.
References
Further reading
*Edited by Winthrop Sargent. ''The Loyal Verses of Joseph Stansbury and Doctor Jonathan Odell Relating to the American Revolution''. J. Munsell, 1860.
::A digitized copy of this book is available on Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
.
link
External links
Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
1737 births
1818 deaths
Loyalists in the American Revolution from New Jersey
American male poets
19th-century Canadian poets
18th-century Canadian poets
Canadian male poets
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Provincial secretaries of New Brunswick
18th-century Canadian male writers
People from colonial New Jersey
19th-century Canadian male writers
Poets from New Brunswick
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