- ‘The Law relating to Savings Banks in England and Ireland,’ 1828.
- ‘Statutes passed in the present Session for the administration of Criminal Justice in England,’ 1828.
- ‘A Summary of the Office of a Justice of the Peace out of Sessions,’ 1828.
- ‘The Law relating to Friendly Societies,’ 1829. This work went to several editions, and had various changes made in the title, the contents, and the arrangement.
- ‘The Laws relating to the Poor,’ 1833.
- ‘The Act for the Amendment of the Laws relating to the Poor,’ 1834.
- ‘A Collection of the Public General Statutes passed 5 & 6 Will. IV., 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. 2 & 3 Vict., 3 & 4 Vict., 4 & 5 Vict., 5 & 6 Vict., 6 & 7 Vict., as far as they are relative to the Office of a Justice of the Peace and to Parochial Matters,’ 1835, 1837, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, and 1843, 7 vols.
- ‘The General Turnpike Road Acts,’ 1837.
- ‘The Law for facilitating the Enclosure of Open and Arable Fields,’ 1837.
- ‘The Property Tax Act,’ 1842, 2nd edit. 1843.
- ‘A Collection of all the Statutes in force respecting the Relief of the Poor,’ 1835–64, 2 vols.; 2nd edit. 1843. Vol. i. of the first edition was compiled by J. Paterson.
- ‘A Summary of the Savings Banks in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland,’ 1846.
- ‘Suggestions for the Establishment of Friendly Societies,’ 1855.
- ‘Index to Acts relating to Friendly Societies,’ 1860.
- ‘Observations on Friendly Societies for Payments at Death, commonly called Burial Societies,’ 1868.
Criminal Justice in England, 1827; 2nd edit. 1827.
[Solicitors' Journal, 15 Jan. 1870, p. 223; Law Times, 15 Jan. 1870 p. 214, 12 Feb. p. 305; Illustrated London News, 1870, lvi. 107, 152, with portrait; Men of the Time, 1868, p. 661; information from the treasurer of the Inner Temple.]
PRATT, JOSIAH (1768–1844), evangelical divine, second son of Josiah Pratt, a Birmingham manufacturer, was born at Birmingham on 21 Dec. 1768. His parents were pious people of the evangelical type. With his two younger brothers, Isaac and Henry, Josiah was educated at Barr House school, six miles from Birmingham. When he was twelve years old his father took him into his business; but his religious impressions deepened, and at the age of seventeen he obtained his father's permission to enter holy orders. After some private tuition, he matriculated on 28 June 1789 from St. Edmund Hall, at that time the only stronghold of evangelicalism at Oxford. His college tutor was Isaac Crouch, a leading evangelical, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. He graduated B.A. and was ordained deacon in 1792, becoming assistant curate to William Jesse, rector of Dowles, near Bewdley. He remained at Dowles until 1795, when, on receiving priest's orders, he became ‘assistant minister’ under Richard Cecil [q. v.], the evangelical minister of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row.
On 7 Sept. 1797 he married and settled at 22 Doughty Street. There he received pupils, among them being Daniel Wilson, afterwards bishop of Calcutta, with whom he maintained close intimacy thenceforth. In 1799, at a meeting of the Eclectic Society, which met in the vestry of St. John's, Bedford Row, he argued that a periodical publication would signally serve the interests of religion. To give practical trial of this view, the first number of the ‘Christian Observer’ appeared in January 1802 under his editorship. In about six weeks he resigned the editorship to Zachary Macaulay [q. v.] Pratt had also taken part in those meetings of the Eclectic (18 March and 12 April 1799) at which the Church Missionary Society was virtually founded. On 8 Dec. 1802 he was elected secretary of the missionary society in succession to Thomas Scott [q. v.] He filled the office, which was the chief occupation of his life, for more than twenty-one years, and displayed a rare tact and business capacity in the performance of his duties. From 1813 to 1815 he travelled through England successfully pleading the cause of the society. He took a leading part in the establishment of the seminary at Islington for the training of missionaries, which was projected in 1822, and opened by him in 1825. At last, on 23 April 1824, he resigned his arduous post to Edward Bickersteth, assistant secretary. He projected, and for some time conducted, the ‘Missionary Register,’ of which the first number appeared in January 1813.
Pratt likewise helped to form the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804; he was one of the original committee, and was its first church of England secretary, but soon retired in favour of John Owen (1766–1822) [q. v.] In 1811 he was elected a life-governor, and in 1812 he helped to frame the rules for the organisation of auxiliary and branch societies, and of bible associations.
In 1804 Pratt left Cecil to become lecturer at St. Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street, where John Newton, another evangelical leader, whose health was failing, was rector. Next year he became Newton's regular assistant curate. In 1804 he also undertook two other lectureships, viz. the evening lecture at Spitalfields Church, and Lady Campden's lecture at St. Lawrence Jewry. In 1810 he was made by Hastings Wheler, the proprietor, incumbent of the chapel of Sir George
