Joshua, the author of the famous Treatise on Annuities which goes by his name, was born in 1776, and pursued the calling of an actuary. His Treatise on Annuities, which was published in 1815, is still regarded as one of the standard works on the subject. At his death, in 1851, he left behind him a large library containing a complete and valuable collection of works on the statistics of vitality, and on the science of botany.