Australian Dictionary of Biography

Joseph Jehoshaphat Harpur (1810-1878), journalist and member of parliament, elder brother of Charles, was also a radical reformer. He became a leading figure in the total abstinence movement led by Rev. Father Lynch in the 1840s. As a result he and his family were converted to Catholicism. After the gold discoveries he went to the fields, was unsuccessful, but played an important part in organizing a miners' union. Active in the radical movements of the 1840s and 1850s, he wrote most of the editorials in the Empire that were a part of the propaganda for the land reform that John Robertson finally introduced. Under Henry Parkes's persistent persuasion, he agreed to stand for parliament and represented Patrick's Plains from July 1861 to November 1864. For Parkes's use he often prepared material, for little pay, for which he often had to beg. He edited a protectionist periodical the Sydney Times in 1864, and later the Balmain Reporter and the Kiama Pilot. He was a clerk in the Lands Department at the time of his death in Sydney on 2 May 1878.