The family hoped that Joe, the eldest son, would follow his father into the wine
trade after completing his schooling with his cousin, Henry Dickinson. He did
not show any inclination or aptitude for trade, however, and went to study
theology at St Augustine's College, Canterbury. He went to Newfoundland (where
there was a settlement of Portuguese speakers) was ordained there and served in
the cathedral at St John's, the mission at Portugal Cove, as vice-principal of
the theological college in St John's and as headmaster of the Church of England
School there. On 2 September 1862 he married Fanny Harriot, daughter of Sir
Bryan Robinson, a politician and judge in Newfoundland. They had nine children,
two of whom died young. In 1884 they moved to England, Joe taking up various
clerical appointments to make ends meet, and eventually retired to Iffley, Oxon,
where he died aged 93.