author
b. 1834
A 19th-century preacher and religious writer whose career took him from Lancashire to Canada and New York, he became widely known for sermons and books on prophecy, British Israelism, and the "lost tribes" of Israel. His work offers a vivid window into the religious debates and speculative history writing of his era.
by Joseph Wild
Born in Lancashire, England, on November 16, 1834, Joseph Wild was a Methodist and later Congregational minister who emigrated first to the United States and then to Upper Canada. He preached from a young age, served congregations in places including Hamilton, Orono, Belleville, Brooklyn, and Toronto, and built a reputation as a strikingly successful public speaker.
Wild also wrote extensively on religion and history-minded prophecy. He is best remembered for books such as The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882, which argued that the peoples of Britain and America were connected to the lost tribes of Israel, a belief associated with British Israelism. His published work reflects both his energy as a preacher and the strong fascination with biblical interpretation that shaped parts of the English-speaking world in the late 1800s.
He died in Brooklyn, New York, on August 18, 1908. For modern listeners, his books are less important as settled history than as revealing documents of their time—earnest, controversial, and deeply tied to the religious ideas that helped make him a well-known figure in the pulpit.