Background
He was born in Southwark on 31 March 1737. His father was a secondhand bookseller, and at twelve years old he was employed as a stationer"s errand boy.
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Joseph Towers
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In 1754 he was apprenticed to Robert Goadby of Sherborne, Dorset, a Whig supporter, and influential through his newspaper, the Sherborne Mercury.
Career
There Towers learned Latin and Greek, and became a supporter of Goadby"s Arian theology. Coming to London in 1764, he worked as a journeyman printer, began to write political pamphlets, and set up a bookseller"s shop in Fore Street about 1765. Goadby employed him as editor of the British Biography (from the date of John Wycliffe), and the first seven volumes, 1766–1772, were compiled by him, on the basis of the Biographia Britannica (1747–1766) but containing much original work, the fruit of research at the British Museum.
He became associated with Andrew Kippis in the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, 1778-1793, where his contributions are signed "T".
Towers left Highgate to become (1778) forenoon preacher at Newington Green Unitarian Church, as coadjutor to Richard Price. On 19 November 1779 he received the diploma of Doctor of Laws from Edinburgh University.
From 1790 to 1799 he was a trustee of Daniel Williams"s foundations. He died on 20 May 1799.
He preached as a Unitarian minister without charge, and in 1792 succeeded Roger Flexman as librarian of Doctor Williams"s Library.
Resigning this post in 1804, he led an eccentric life, busy with literary schemes, and collecting books and prints. He became insane in 1830, and died on 4 October 1831, at the White House, Bethnal Green. He was buried in a vault at Elim Chapel, Fetter Lane.
