Joshua Steele dedicated his Melody and Measure of Speech (25/9/1775)

[Ross Clark]

Irish planter and writer (1700-1796)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Steele

Spent most of his life in London.
In 1775, he published _An Essay Towards Establishing the Melody and
Measure of Speech, to be Expressed and Perpetuated by Peculiar Symbols_.
(Second edition 1779, with the short title Prosodia Rationalis.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosodia_Rationalis

There you can see an example of his "peculiar symbols", which are based
on five-line staff musical notation.

This was one of the earliest serious treatments of English prosody
(intonation, stress, rhythm, metre).

Having published his most interesting work in his 70s, in 1780 he left
London to spend the rest of his life managing his plantations in Barbados.

[Aidan Kehoe]

Post by Ross Clark
Irish planter and writer (1700-1796)

The Dictionary of Irish Biography documents that he “was born in Ireland but
there are no details about his early life; indeed the first record of his
existence is from 17 October 1750, when he married Sally (or Sarah) Hopkins
Osborn, a wealthy heiress with vast sugar estates in Bar(a)bados. Then residing
in London, [...]”

It’s a Presbyterian and Anglican surname in this country, mostly in the North:

https://www.barrygriffin.com/surname-maps/irish/steele/

An unusual life, and an unusual interest.