Jonathan Odell was a Loyalist poet who lived during the American Revolution.
Background
Jonathan Odell was born on September 25, 1737, in Newark, New Jersey. His father, John, was descended from William Odell who came from England to Concord, Massachussets, in 1639 or earlier and some five years later settled at Fairfield, Connecticut; his mother was a daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, first president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University.
Education
Young Odell was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1759. He was educated as a physician, and served as a surgeon in the British army. While stationed in the West Indies he left the army to go to England, where he studied for the ministy.
Career
In England, Jonathan Odell was made deacon on December 21, 1766, in the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace, and ordained priest in January 1767. During his stay in England he exhibited a talent for poetry. In July 1767 he was inducted by Gov. William Franklin into the office of missionary to St. Ann's Church (afterward St. Mary's) in Burlington, New Jersey, under the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In the same capacity he also served a church at Mount Holly. On July 25, 1771, as a side issue to help sustain his family, he began to practise medicine at Burlington. On November 8, 1774, he was elected a member of the New Jersey medical society.
With the outbreak of the Revolution, Odell was found a strong partisan on the side of the Crown. On June 4, 1776, verses of his assailing the American position were sung by British prisoners then confined in the Burlington jail. This circumstance brought upon him much condemnation by the public and his case came up before the Provincial Congress. On July 20 he was ordered to be placed on parole whereby he should keep within a circle of eight miles from the Burlington County courthouse and on the east side of the Delaware River. He kept this parole till December, when he took refuge in Governor Franklin's house, and on December 18 escaped to New York City.
Later, October 3, 1778, the grand jury of Burlington County brought in an inquisition against him for treason. He remained within British lines until the close of the war and was held in such esteem as to be intrusted with an important role in the negotiations between Benedict Arnold and British headquarters. From the beginning of the secret correspondence, in 1779, Odell acted as André's go-between, meeting the messengers, deciphering the letters received, and, under various pseudonyms, corresponding with Arnold's agent.
At the same time he had the approval of Headquarters in writing and publishing sharp essays and satirical verses in Rivington's Royal Gazette and other newspapers. These stinging verses engaged much attention on both sides, and were among the most influential published during the period. Many of them were collected by Joel Munsell in The Loyal Verses of Joseph Stansbury and Doctor Jonathan Odell (1860). Less poetic than Stansbury, seldom showing playfulness or humor, Odell has been described as possessing "invincible tenacity, a deathless love, a deathless hate, " while the same critic says that no one on the Loyal side "approaches Odell either in passionate energy of thought or in pungency and polish of style. " Few public men in New Jersey escaped the lampoons of his verse or his prose. He became chaplain of a regiment of Pennsylvania Loyalists, translated French and Spanish papers, and was assistant secretary to the Board of Directors of Associated Loyalists.
On July 1, 1783, Odell became assistant secretary to Sir Guy Carleton, then commander-in-chief of the British forces. He accompanied Carleton to England soon after the evacuation of New York, taking with him his wife and three children. In 1784, however, he returned to the Loyalist province of New Brunswick, Canada. The Doctor had been greatly beloved by his Burlington congregation despite his attitude toward the war, and upon settling in New Brunswick he became registrar and clerk of the province, with a seat in the executive council, at a salary of £1, 000. He continued in the former office until 1812, when he was succeeded by his only son, William Franklin Odell, godson of Gov. William Franklin. The younger Odell held the office for thirty-two years, dying in 1844. Jonathan Odell died at Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1818. His wife survived him, remaining in Fredericton until her death in 1825.
Achievements
Membership
Jonathan Odell was a member of the New Jersey medical society in 1774. Jonathan also was a member of the Board of Directors of Associated Loyalists.
Connections
Jonathan Odell married Anne, daughter of Isaac De Cou of Burlington, May 6, 1772.