Life

He was son of Thomas Peter Romilly of London, by his cousin Jane Anne, second daughter of Isaac Romilly. Sir Samuel Romilly was his uncle. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, in 1809, became a scholar of the college, and graduated B.A. in 1813 as fourth wrangler

Wrangler

At the University of Cambridge in England, a 'Wrangler' is a student who gains first-class honours in the third year of the University's undergraduate degree in mathematics. The highest-scoring student is the Senior Wrangler, the second highest is the Second Wrangler, and so on...

. He was elected Fellow in 1815, and proceeded M.A. in 1816. He took holy orders, but he never held any preferment, except that he was chaplain to Thomas Musgrave

Thomas Musgrave

Thomas Musgrave was archbishop of York from 1847 to 1860.Born on 30 March 1788, his first senior Church of England appointment was when he was installed Dean of Bristol on 13 or 14 May 1837. Three months later, he was nominated Bishop of Hereford by the crown on 5 August and consecrated on 1...

, Archbishop of York

Archbishop of York

The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...

, who had been a friend at Trinity.

He belonged to the liberal party in the university, led by George Peacock

George Peacock

George Peacock was an English mathematician.-Life:Peacock was born on 9 April 1791 at Thornton Hall, Denton, near Darlington, County Durham. His father, the Rev. Thomas Peacock, was a clergyman of the Church of England, incumbent and for 50 years curate of the parish of Denton, where he also kept...

 and Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...

, Romilly's intimate friend. In 1821 he joined the committee for promoting a subscription in the university to aid the Greeks in their war of independence

Greek War of Independence

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...

. He was one of the party who successfully opposed the petition which it was planned should be presented in 1829 against Catholic emancipation

Catholic Emancipation

Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...

. He opposed Christopher Wordsworth

Christopher Wordsworth

Christopher Wordsworth was an English bishop and man of letters.-Life:Wordsworth was born in London, the youngest son of the Rev. Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, Master of Trinity and a nephew of the poet William Wordsworth...

, then master of Trinity, on the question of Connop Thirlwall

Connop Thirlwall

Connop Thirlwall was an English bishop and historian.-Early life:Thirlwall was born at Stepney, London, of a Northumbrian family. He was a prodigy, learning Latin at three, Greek at four, and writing sermons at seven.He went to Charterhouse School, where George Grote and Julius Hare were among...

's dismissal in 1834.

On 23 March 1832 he was elected registrary of the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 after a competition with Temple Chevallier

Temple Chevallier

Temple Chevallier was a British clergyman, astronomer, and mathematician. Between 1847 and 1849, he made important observations regarding sunspots. Chevallier has been called "a remarkable Victorian polymath"...

, and remained in this office until 1861, when he retired. His major work as registrary was the arrangement and cataloguing of all the university papers. He died suddenly at Yarmouth

Yarmouth, Isle of Wight

Yarmouth is a port and civil parish in the western part of the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of mainland England. The town is named for its location at the mouth of the small Western Yar river...

, of heart disease, on Sunday 7 August 1864, and was buried in a vault in Christ Church, Barnwell

Barnwell, Cambridgeshire

Barnwell is a suburb of Cambridge in England.It lies northeast of the city, with Cambridge Airport located immediately to the east. It forms part of the ecclesiastical parish of St Andrew the Less and was the site of Barnwell Priory....

.

Diary

From 1832 till his death he kept a diary, which has been used by the authors of the Life of Adam Sedgwick; it contains nearly as much about Sedgwick as about its author. An edited version has been published as Romilly's Cambridge Diary, 1832–42: Selected Passages from the Diary of the Rev. Joseph Romilly, Fellow of Trinity College and Registrary of the University of Cambridge (2009), edited by John Patrick Tuer Bury.

He also edited Graduati Cantabrigienses, 1760–1856, which was published at Cambridge in 1856.