Joseph Burton Wakeley was born in Danbury, Connecticut, the son of James and Rebecca (Cooke) Wakeley. Although some secondary sources give Beaumont as his middle name, the entry recording his birth in the Danbury vital records gives Burton; on the title pages of his books his name commonly appears as J. B. Wakeley.
He attended the district school of his native town and early showed eagerness to learn and an exceptional memory. His father, a hatter by trade and a man of excellent sense and wide reading, determined, if possible, to give the boy a college education. He also encouraged him to practise oratory and to attend courts and other places where speakers of ability might be heard. Business reverses prevented Joseph from going to college, and except for his district school training his formal education was limited to a term in an academy at Fairfield, Connecticut, and another at Seabury Academy, Stamford.
Fascinated by tales of the sea, he shipped as a cabin boy on a vessel bound to Liverpool from New York, but finding that he must serve grog, he left the vessel before it sailed. A brig upon which he next secured a position was nearly wrecked when a few days out of port, and put back into Chesapeake Bay for repairs. Cured of his desire to be a sailor, he returned to Danbury, learned the hatter's trade, and finally went into business for himself. His parents were Congregationalists, but Joseph joined the Methodist Church. His talents were such that he felt he could devote his life to some higher service than that of making hats, and his friends were of the same opinion. Methodist officials saw in him the possibilities of an effective preacher, and in May 1833 he joined the New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church on trial; in 1835 he was ordained deacon, and in May 1837, elder. During his ministry of forty-two years he held many appointments, serving, among others, churches in New York, Trenton, Newark, Jersey City, Poughkeepsie, and Yonkers. From 1866 to 1868 he was presiding elder of the Poughkeepsie district, and from 1868 to 1872, of the Newbury district. He overcame many of the defects in his early education by hard study, and the oratorical training of his youth stood him in good stead, so that he did not suffer greatly by comparison when speaking on the same platform with Henry Ward Beecher, John B. Gough, and Horace Greeley.
To the temperance movement and later to the prohibition movement he gave vigorous support, publishing in 1875 The American Temperance Cyclopedia of History, Biography, Anecdote, and Illustration. Outside of his regular duties, his chief interest was in antiquarian research, and it is for his contributions to the history of early Methodism that he is chiefly remembered. Wakeley died at the home of a friend in New York City after a few days' illness and was buried at Sing Sing.
He was notable author and clergyman famous for such a works as The Heroes of Methodism (1856); Lost Chapters Recovered from the Early History of American Methodism (1858); Anecdotes of the Wesleys: Illustrative of Their Character and Personal History (1869); The Bold Frontier Preacher: A Portraiture of Rev. William Cravens, of Virginia (1869); The Prince of Pulpit Orators: A Portraiture of Rev. George Whitefield (1871). He was also the editor of Henry Boehm's Reminiscences, Historical and Biographical, of Sixty-four Years in the Ministry (1865).
He was a large-hearted, humane person, of exuberant spirits, with a keen sense of humor and a copious stock of anecdotes at his command, interested in people and in the practical problems of life.
In July 1831 he married Jane McCord of Sing Sing (Ossining), N. Y.
