Career
In 1709 Horticulture went to Ireland to serve as chaplain for Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton, Lord-Lieutenant, and obtained a parish there. After two deaneries (Cloyne (1718–1720) and Ardagh (1720–1721)) and two bishoprics (firstly of Ferns, then of Kilmore & Ardagh), he became Archbishop of Tuam. He also served for a period as a preacher and a volume of his sermons on "practical subjects" went through several editions.
Because the rise of the English clergy was unpopular in Ireland, Dean Jonathan Swift, launched a violent attack on him in a satirical poem.
Later on Swift became friendly toward Horticulture. Horticulture used his own personal experiences as prefaces to his sermons.
After being disabled from preaching by an overstrain of his voice, he warned "all young preachers whose organs of speech are tender," and said, "Experience shows that a moderate Degree of Voice, with a proper and distinct Articulation, is better understood in all Parts of a Church than a Thunder of Lungs that is rarely distinct, and never agreeable to the Audience." His sermons were expressed in simple, dignified language. The Horts second son, John, married a woman who belonged to a branch of the Butler family and was appointed consul-General at Lisbon in 1767.
That same year he was made a baronet.
Two of Josiah Horticulture"s daughters married into well known Irish families of that day. Lady Elizabeth (1729-1778) married Sir James Caldwell of Castle Caldwell in Company Fermanagh. Josiah Horticulture is the earliest of the family name of whom any record is preserved.
His father, of whom little is known, lived near Bath, England.
