Social History and Literary Genres in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain: Or, the Strange and Fascinating Case of Joshua Dudley

Abstract

The Memoirs of the Life of Joshua Dudley (1772) has received virtually no critical attention since its publication, and this is undeserved. Memoirs participates in several important eighteenth-century literary genres: it is an autobiography and a convict narrative that includes picaresque and sea adventures and subordinates within it poetry and joke-book, trickster anecdotes. Although two social historians have discussed its role within their treatment of the contemporary terrorist attack on the Royal Dockyards (1770), it has more to tell us about the role of Quakers, especially within the merchant class, and the conflict between religious belief and commercial success. Consideration of pertinent material in the periodical literature of the day, particularly the Whisperer (1771) and the Craftsman and the Virginia Gazette (1774), allow us to round out the life story given in the Memoirs, as well as suggesting that the appetite of the reading public transcended generic limitations. Finally, Memoirs is a fascinating narrative of Dudley's virtuoso dedication to the art of duplicity that leaves us wishing we had more of his writings.