John Paradise (1743–1795) was an

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term '' Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

linguist, known as a friend of

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

and

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

Life

He was born at

Thessalonica Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

in April 1743, the son of Peter Paradise (died 1 February 1779), who was the English consul there. He was educated at

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

, then lived in London for most of his life in London. He knew ancient and modern Greek, Latin, Turkish, French, Italian, and English.

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

and

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

encouraged him to come to America. In correspondence with the latter in the 1780s, Paradise assisted Jefferson in studying the Greek language. On 14 April 1769 Paradise was created M.A. of Oxford University, and on 3 July 1776 the degree of D.C.L. was conferred on him. 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 Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...

there at dinner. When Johnson started an evening club at the

Essex Head Tavern The Edgar Wallace is a public house at 40–41 Essex Street, London WC2, at the corner with Devereux Court. The pub dates back to 1777, and was originally The Essex Head."Essex Street" in The landlord then was Samuel Greaves, a former servant o ...

Essex Street, London Essex Street is a street in the City of Westminster that runs from Milford Lane in the south to Strand in the north. It is joined by Little Essex Street on its western side and Devereux Court on the eastern side. It was laid out by Nicholas Barb ...

, in December 1783, Paradise was one of the regular attendants.

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

, when discussing the club, enumerated him among the "very learned". He was one of the mourners at Johnson's funeral. Paradise, a friend of

Sir William Jones Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India. He is particularly known for his proposition of th ...

, was described as very silent, modest, and amiable. He lived at one time in Charles Street, Cavendish Square; he died at

Great Titchfield Street Great Titchfield Street is a street in the West End of London. It runs north from Oxford Street to Greenwell Street, just short of the busy A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road. It lies within the informally designated London area of Fitzrovi ...

, London, on 12 December 1795. He left money to buy

mourning ring Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...

s to nine: Isaac Hawkins Browne,

Nathaniel Burwell Nathaniel Burwell (April 15, 1750 – March 29, 1814) was an American politician and plantation owner. Perhaps the most distinguished of five men of that name to serve in the Virginia General Assembly before the American Civil War (as distin ...

, Bennet Langton,

Samuel Horsley Samuel Horsley (15 September 1733 – 4 October 1806) was a British churchman, bishop of Rochester from 1793. He was also well versed in physics and mathematics, on which he wrote a number of papers and thus was elected a Fellow of the Royal So ...

Richard Warburton Lytton Richard John Warburton Lytton (''né'' Warburton; 26 August 1745''England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975'' – 29 December 1810) was an English landowner and member of the Lytton family. He was the father of Elizabeth Barbara Lytton ...

, Frederick North,

William Windham William Windham (4 June 1810) of Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk, was a British Whig statesman. Elected to Parliament in 1784, Windham was attached to the remnants of the Rockinghamite faction of Whigs, whose members included his friends Charles J ...

, and

Semyon Romanovich Woronzow Count Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov (or Woronzow, russian: Семён Романович Воронцо́в; 26 June 17449 July 1832) was a Russian diplomat from the aristocratic Russian Vorontsov family, whose siblings included Alexander Vorontsov ...

Family

Paradise on 18 May 1769 married

Lucy Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...

(1751–1814), daughter of

Philip Ludwell III Philip Cottington Ludwell III (December 28, 1716 – February 28, 1767) was a Virginia planter, soldier and politician who twice represented Jamestown in the House of Burgesses, but in 1760 left his plantations in the care of overseers and perma ...

, a plantation owner from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Around 1805 after the death of her husband and two daughters she returned to Williamsburg, where she lived in the Ludwell-Paradise House.

Notes

External links

;Attribution
John Paradise: The First Naturalized U.S. Citizen and Thomas Jefferson’s Greek-Language Tutor, Ludwell.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paradise, John 1743 births 1795 deaths Linguists from the United Kingdom Fellows of the Royal Society