Joseph Haskins

Joseph Haskins was most likely a Unitarian, for the Presbyterian chapel at Shaugh, where his farm was located, had been introduced to Unitarian doctrines under the ministry of Dr. William Harris (1720-70). Shaugh was situated about four miles north of Honiton in the parish of Luppit (sometimes spelled Luppitt), in the hundred of Axminster in Devon. Shaugh had apparently been the home of Joseph Haskins’s ancestors since the late 1500s.  A George Hoskyns moved to Luppitt in 1585 and began farming on land that later became known as Overday, near the Luppitt church, which was owned by the family. Overday remained in the Hoskins family until the late eighteenth century, when George Hoskins (1773-1839) left Shaugh for a farm in Sidmouth (Hoskins 56-62).  It may be that at that time (c. 1794) Joseph Haskins began living on the Overday farm at Shaugh, most likely having removed from Bath, where he had previously lived.  Apparently, the family name went through various spelling changes, Haskins being one of them.  It would seem likely that Joseph was indeed a part of the original Hoskyns family, for in a letter to Thomas Poole of 15 September 1794, he mentions staying with another Haskins in Sidmouth, the same place to which George Hoskins had removed sometime before 1794 (Poole Correspondence f.219, British Library).

Haskins probably met John Feltham, who was at that time engaged to Eliza Gould (later Flower) through their mutual friend, Richard Northcote (Feltham 102-03).  Eliza first mentions Haskins in her letter to Feltham of June 1794. Two months later, Haskins’s acquaintance, Tom Poole of Nether Stowey, Somerset, would meet two enthusiastic university students, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, who were propagating the virtues of their communal scheme (Pantisocracy) during a visit to the West Country that August.  Haskins, a “warm democrat” at that time (as Eliza describes him in letter 39), was intrigued by the duo’s scheme of emigrating to America, asking Poole in a letter dated 15 September 1794 for more particulars on the proposed plan:  “Your Brother whom I the other day saw at Sherborne informed me of a scheme which some Friends of yours are about putting into execution—that of a migration into America.  As this is an Idea which I have long entertained, I should be much gratified in being favoured with the particulars expecting it—whether (as it seems it is in the plan of forming a new colony) the number of Emigraters are limited or not—what their qualification—what the Ideas in which they proceed takes?” (Poole Correspond­ence, f.219).  Poole responded to Haskins on 22 September 1794, providing the most complete description extant of Coleridge and Southey’s vision of Pantisocracy (Sandford 1.96-99). 

  In 1797 Haskins and Feltham walked from Bristol to Liverpool, through the counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucester, Monmouth, Hereford, Salop, Chester, and Lancaster, a journey of 208 miles which they accomplished in only seven days.  They then ferried from Liverpool to the Isle of Man.  During his stay there, Feltham, along with the American J. Edward Wright, toured the island extensively, recording observations that would later comprise the material for his two books on the Isle of Man.  Haskins did not emigrate to America, but he did remove to the Isle of Man in 1798. Haskins maintained his ties with the West Country, however, long after his removal to the Isle of Man, serving, along with Tom Poole, as a life-time member of the Bath and West of England Society, for the Encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

Haskins would play a major role in the life of Eliza Gould in 1798 and 1799, just prior to her marriage to Benjamin Flower. Haskins would not only defend her character against the accusation of Feltham, but also provide her with a substantial sum of money to help in establishing her in her new life in Cambridge with Flower after their marriage on 1 January 1800. Haskins appears often in the early letters of Eliza Gould [Flower]. See Mrs. Henry Sandford,  Thomas Poole and his Friends,  2 vols.  London:  Macmillan, 1888; John Feltham, A Tour through the Island of Mann, in 1797 and 1798; Comprising sketches of its Ancient and Modern History, Constitution, Laws, Commerce, Agriculture, fFshery, &c. (Bath:  R. Cruttwell, 1798).