Joseph Townsend

British medical doctor, geologist and vicar (1739–1816).

Joseph Townsend (4 April 1739 – 9 November 1816) was a British medical doctor, geologist and rector of Pewsey in Wiltshire, perhaps best known for his 1786 treatise A Dissertation on the Poor Laws in which he expounded a naturalistic theory of economics and opposed state provision, either outdoor or otherwise. Townsend has been credited with anticipating Thomas Malthus' argument against public welfare assistance in An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). Unlike Malthus, however, Townsend advocated a system of social insurance through compulsory membership of friendly societies, which w