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.

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