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{{Short description|English scholar, writer and activist (1825–1910)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = John E. B. Mayor
| honorific_suffix   = {{postnominals|country=GBR|FBA|size=100%}}
| image              = JohnEytonBickerstethMayorbyHubertvonHerkomer.jpg
| caption            = 1891 portrait by [[Hubert von Herkomer]]
| birth_name         = John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1825|01|28|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Baddegama]], [[British Ceylon]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1910|12|01|1825|01|28|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Cambridge]], England
| resting_place      = [[Ascension Parish Burial Ground]], Cambridge
| occupation         = Scholar, writer, activist
}}

'''John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|FBA}} (28 January 1825 – 1 December 1910) was an English classical scholar, writer and [[vegetarianism]] activist.

==Biography==

=== Early life and education ===
Mayor was born at [[Baddegama]], [[British Ceylon]] (now [[Sri Lanka]]) the son of Rev. Robert Mayor and Charlotte Bickersteth. His mother came from the prominent Bickersteth family and was the sister of [[Henry Bickersteth, 1st Baron Langdale]] and Rev. [[Edward Bickersteth (priest)|Edward Bickersteth]]. He was sent to England to be educated at [[Shrewsbury School]] and [[St John's College, Cambridge]]. [[Joseph Bickersteth Mayor]] was his younger brother.<ref name=":0">{{acad|id=MR844JE|name=Mayor, John Eyton Bickersteth}}</ref>

=== Career ===
From 1863 to 1867, Mayor was librarian of the [[University of Cambridge]], and in 1872 succeeded [[Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro|H. A. J. Munro]] in the [[Kennedy Professor of Latin|professorship]] of [[Latin]], which he held for 28 years. His best-known work, an edition of the thirteen [[Satires of Juvenal]], is notable for an extraordinary wealth of illustrative quotations. His ''Bibliographical Clue to Latin Literature'' (1875), based on [[Emil Hübner]]'s ''Grundriss zu Vorlesungen über die römische Litteraturgeschichte'', was a valuable aid to students, and his edition of [[Cicero]]'s ''[[Second Philippic]]'' became widely used.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Mayor also edited the English works of [[John Fisher]], Bishop of Rochester (1876); [[Thomas Baker (antiquarian)|Thomas Baker's]] ''History of St John's College, Cambridge'' (1869); [[Richard of Cirencester]]'s ''Speculum historiale de gestis regum Angliae 447–1066'' (1863&ndash;69); [[Roger Ascham]]'s ''Schoolmaster'' (new ed., 1883); the ''Latin Heptateuch'' (1889); and the ''[[Journal of Philology]]''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

According to the ''[[Enciklopedio de Esperanto]]'', Mayor learned [[Esperanto]] in 1907, and gave a historic speech against Esperanto reformists at the [[World Congress of Esperanto]] held at Cambridge.

=== Vegetarianism ===
[[File:Vegetarian speakers 1905.png|thumb|Vegetarian speakers at [[Congregational Memorial Hall|Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street]] in 1905. Mayor is pictured on the far right.]]
Mayor succeeded [[Francis William Newman]] as president of the [[Vegetarian Society]]<ref>Spencer, Colin. (1995). ''[[iarchive:hereticsfeasthis0000spen|The Heretic's Feast: A History of Vegetarianism]]''. University Press of New England. p. 275. {{ISBN|0-87451-708-7}}</ref> in 1884 and remained in that position till his death.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Venn |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OuU54j4aT6QC |title=Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900 |last2=Venn |first2=John Archibald |date=2011-09-15 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-03614-6 |pages=379 |language=en |chapter=Mayor, John Eyton Bickersteth}}</ref> He was a strict [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]] and [[teetotaller]] but it was noted that "he never sought to impose his rule of abstinence on others."<ref>{{cite journal |year=1912 |title=Twelve Cambridge Sermons. By John E. B. Mayor. Edited with a Memoir by H. F. Stewart |journal=[[The Journal of Education]] |volume=34 |pages=183}}</ref> Mayor authored ''[[What is Vegetarianism?]]'', in 1886. His vegetarian writings were published in the book, ''Plain Living and High Thinking'' in 1897.<ref>{{cite journal |year=1897 |title=Prof. John E. B. Mayor, M. A |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015049796421&view=1up&seq=141 |journal=Food, Home and Garden |volume=1 |issue=9 |pages=131}}</ref>

In October 1905, a meeting was held at [[Congregational Memorial Hall]], London, for octogenarian vegetarians. Speakers in attendance included Mayor (then aged 84), [[Joseph Wallace (vegetarian)|Joseph Wallace]], [[T. A. Hanson]], [[C. P. Newcombe]], [[Samuel Saunders (vegetarian)|Samuel Saunders]], and Samuel Pitman, brother of [[Isaac Pitman]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=October 1905 |title=Diet and Longevity |url=http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/herald_of_the_golden_age/herald_of_the_golden_age_v10_n4_oct_1905.pdf |journal=[[Herald of the Golden Age]] |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=75}}</ref>

Mayor ate a strict vegetarian diet and lived off twopence a day. His diet consisted of bread, fruit, porridge and vegetables with lemonade as his only drink.<ref>{{cite news |date=December 8, 1910 |title=Lived on Twopence a Day |url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004338%2F19101208&page=3 |newspaper=Porthcawl and District News |page=3}} {{subscription required}}</ref>

=== Death ===
Mayor died on 1 December 1910 in Cambridge. He is buried in the [[Ascension Parish Burial Ground]] in Cambridge.<ref name=":0" />

== Legacy ==
Mayor's life and work are idiosyncratically and somewhat unsympathetically described in ''[[Juvenal]]'s Mayor: The Professor Who Lived on 2d. a Day'' by [[J. G. W. Henderson]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Henderson |first=John |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv27h1q8h |title=Juvenal's Mayor: The Professor who Lived on 2D. a Day |date=2020-08-30 |volume=20 |publisher=Cambridge Philological Society |isbn=978-1-913701-26-0 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv27h1q8h |jstor=j.ctv27h1q8h }}</ref>

==Selected publications==

*[https://archive.org/details/nicholasferrartw00mayouoft/page/n5 ''Nicholas Ferrar: Two Lives''] (1855)
*[https://archive.org/details/earlystatutesofc00stjo/page/n6 ''Early statutes of the College of St. John at Cambridge in the University of Cambridge''] (1859)
*''Advent Warnings: a Sermon'' (1863)
*[https://archive.org/details/cu31924102775222/page/n6 ''History of the College of St. John the Evangelist, Cambridge''] (with Thomas Baker, 1869)
*''Affiliation of Local Colleges to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge'' (1874)
*[https://archive.org/details/bibliographicalc00mayorich/page/n8 ''Bibliographical Clue to Latin Literature''] (1875)
*[https://archive.org/details/modicuscibimedic00mayoiala ''Modicus Cibi Medicus Sibi, Or, Nature Her Own Physician''] (1880)
*''[[What is Vegetarianism?]]'' (1886)
*[https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.23076/page/n33 ''The Church and the Life of the Poor''] (1889)
*[https://archive.org/details/latinheptateuc00mayo/page/n6 ''The Latin Heptateuch''] (1889)
*[https://archive.org/details/thirteensatiresw01juveuoft/page/n6 ''Thirteen Satires of Juvenal''] (1889)
*''Spain, Portugal: the Bible'' (1892)
*''Plain Living and High Thinking'' (1897)
*[https://archive.org/details/b21450845 ''Mercy, Not Curiosity, the Mother of Medicine''] (1898) 
*[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeunderqu00mayouoft/page/n8 ''Cambridge Under Queen Anne''] (1911)
*[https://archive.org/details/twelvecambridges00mayorich/page/n4 ''Twelve Cambridge Sermons''] (1911)

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Mayor, John Eyton Bickersteth|volume=17|page=937}}
*[http://www.bartleby.com/222/1502.html The Cambridge History of English and American Literature]

==External links==
* {{Find a Grave|97077475}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before= [[Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Kennedy Professor of Latin]] [[Cambridge University]]|years=1872–1910}}
{{s-aft|after=[[A.E. Housman]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Vegetarianism|state=collapsed}}
{{Vegetarian Society}}
{{FBA 1902}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayor, John Eyton Bickersteth}}
[[Category:1825 births]]
[[Category:1910 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Bickersteth family]]
[[Category:Burials in Cambridgeshire]]
[[Category:Cambridge University Librarians]]
[[Category:English book editors]]
[[Category:English classical scholars]]
[[Category:English Esperantists]]
[[Category:English magazine editors]]
[[Category:English temperance activists]]
[[Category:English vegetarianism activists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Kennedy Professors of Latin]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Vegetarian Society]]
[[Category:People educated at Shrewsbury School]]
[[Category:Scholars of Latin literature]]
[[Category:Vegetarianism writers]]