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David George Goyder

1796 - 1878

David George Goyder

David George Goyder was a remarkable man with a remarkable life, who founded a remarkable family. He was choirboy, brushmaker, page to the minor Dutch aristocracy, printer, teacher, New Church minister, lecturer, phrenologist, author — and father of eight children.

Born in Westminster, London, in on 1st March (St David's Day) 1796, he died aged 82 in Bradford, Yorkshire, on 29 June 1878.

In 1857 he published his autobiography My Battle for Life: the autobiography of a phrenologist. The first third of the book is largely given over to his early life, while the rest of the book was described by one of his grandson's as "bumps and sermons" — a detailed account of phrenology and New Church matters.

I have digitised on this site the majority of the biographical information contained in the autobiography.