author

Joseph Augustus Dowling

d. 1829

A little-known early 19th-century pamphleteer, remembered for publishing fast, documentary-style accounts of sensational trials and political violence. His surviving works capture the feel of the streets, courtrooms, and public controversies of Britain in the late 1810s.

1 Audiobook

The Sentence and Affidavit of John Church, the Obelisk Preacher For an Attempt to Commit an Unnatural Crime on Adam Foreman, at Vauxhall. Together With Judge Bayley's Impressive Address to the Prisoner, at Full Length. At the Court of King's Bench, Nov. 24, 1817.

The Sentence and Affidavit of John Church, the Obelisk Preacher For an Attempt to Commit an Unnatural Crime on Adam Foreman, at Vauxhall. Together With Judge Bayley's Impressive Address to the Prisoner, at Full Length. At the Court of King's Bench, Nov. 24, 1817.

by Joseph Augustus Dowling

About the author

Joseph Augustus Dowling is a very obscure figure, and only a small amount can be confirmed from readily available library and catalog sources. He is credited as the author of several short works from the late 1810s, including The Sentence and Affidavit of John Church, the Obelisk Preacher and The Whole Proceedings Before the Coroner's Inquest at Oldham... on the Body of John Lees.

Those titles suggest the kind of writer he was: less a novelist than a compiler and publisher of topical material, turning court cases, inquests, and public scandals into printed accounts for contemporary readers. One catalog source identifies him as active in 1819, which fits the dates of the works most clearly linked to his name.

Beyond that, even basic biographical details are hard to verify with confidence, so it is best to treat him as a shadowy literary presence whose works survive more clearly than his life story. No confirmed portrait was found from the sources reviewed here.