John Paradise

John Paradise (1743–1795) was an Anglo-Greek linguist, known as a friend of Samuel Johnson and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Life

He was born at Salonica in April 1743, the son of Peter Paradise (died 1 February 1779), who was the resident English consul to the ruling Ottoman government, descended from a half-Greek, half-English mother.[1] Paradise was a native-born member of the Greek Orthodox Church.[1] He was educated at Padua, and later relocated to London where he lived for most of his life. He was fluent in Ancient and Modern Greek, Latin, Turkish, French, Italian, and English.[2] Paradise's American contacts,Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, encouraged him to relocate to the newly independent United States of America.[3]

Throughout their correspondence in the 1780s, Paradise assisted Jefferson in studying the Greek language.[4]

On April 14, 1769, Paradise was created M.A. of Oxford University, and on July 3, 1776, the degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him.[5] He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society on 2 May 1771. His house was open to men of letters, and he entertained leading literary figures. Samuel Johnson dined with him, and on one occasion met Joseph Priestley there at dinner. When Johnson started an evening club at the Essex Head Tavern in Essex Street, London, in December 1783, Paradise was one of the regular attendants. Sir Joshua Reynolds, when discussing the club, enumerated him among the "very learned". He was one of the mourners at Johnson's funeral.[2]

Paradise, a friend of Sir William Jones, was described as very silent, modest, and amiable. He lived at one time in Charles Street, Cavendish Square; he died at Great Titchfield Street, London, on 12 December 1795.[2] He left money to buy mourning rings to nine: Isaac Hawkins Browne, Nathaniel Burwell, Bennet Langton, Samuel Horsley, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Warburton Lytton, Frederick North, William Windham, and Semyon Romanovich Woronzow.[6]

Family

On 18 May 1769, he married Lucy Ludwell (1751–1814), daughter of Philip Ludwell III, a plantation owner from Virginia.[7] Lucy, like John, was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.[1] Around 1805, after the death of her husband and two daughters she returned to Williamsburg, where she lived in the Ludwell–Paradise House.[2]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Struve, Gleb (1949). "John Paradise: Friend of Doctor Johnson, American Citizen and Russian "Agent". An Episode in Anglo-Russian Relations". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 57 (4): 355–375. ISSN 0042-6636.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Paradise, John" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 43. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ↑ Moskos, Peter C. (5 July 2017). Greek Americans: Struggle and Success. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-351-51669-3.
  4. ↑ Archibald Bolling Shepperson, John Paradise and Lucy Ludwell of London and Williamsburg (Richmond: The Dietz Press, 1942), p. 212.
  5. ↑ s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Paradise, John
  6. ↑ Gleb Struve, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 57, No. 4 (Oct., 1949), pp. 355–375. Published by: Virginia Historical Society. JSTOR 4245654
  7. ↑ Haigh, John D. "Paradise, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21258. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Paradise, John". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 43. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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