John Bunyan (bef. 1628 - 1688)

Born before 28 Nov 1628 in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth Unknown — married 1659 in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England

Descendants

Died 31 Aug 1688 after age 59 in London, England

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Biography

John Bunyan is Notable.

1. English Baptist preacher and writer, John Bunyan was born in Elstow, England near Bedford where he spent most of his life. Although today he is regarded as a literary genius, he had little formal education. At the age of 16, this rough and profane young man enlisted in the army of Parliament and saw active duty during the English civil war. In 1647 at the age of 19, he married a young woman who persuaded him to attend church with her regularly where he heard the Gospel. After deep and prolonged soul struggle he made a complete surrender to Christ and was converted, after which he was baptized and joined the Baptist church of Bedford.

• Soon he began to preach there and also in the surrounding villages which caused the people to recognize in him elements of leadership as well as ability as an expositor of the scriptures. Continuing in his trade as a tinker, he witnessed wherever he went. He spent his holidays and Sundays preaching in barns, shops, village greens, as well as in the open air. Such great crowds began to follow him that it led to his arrest and imprisonment in 1660 for conducting a “conventicle,” a religious meeting without the permission of the state church. When offered his freedom if he would promise not to preach, he refused and chose jail. While imprisoned he studied, preached, wrote, and supported his family by making and selling shoe laces.

• It was while a prisoner that he wrote his immortal “Pilgrim’s Progress.” In 1672 he was released and immediately resumed his ministry. During the last sixteen years of his life he was active as pastor, writer, helper, counselor, organizer, administrator, and pastor-in-chief to a multitude of churches and young ministers. Bunyan was a champion for the cause of religious liberty and freedom of conscience in spiritual matters. One who knew him well wrote, “The grace of God was magnified in him and by him, and a rich anointing of the Spirit was upon him; and yet this great saint was always in his own eyes the chiefest of sinners and the poorest of saints.” He died in 1688 after riding forty miles in a driving rain on horseback to London to preach. He was always a poor man, yet through his example, his ministry, and especially his pen, he bequeathed inestimable riches to posterity.

• John Bunyan was an English writer and preacher best remembered as the author of the religious allegory The Pilgrim's Progress. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.

• The Pilgrim's Progress became one of the most published books in the English language; 1,300 editions having been printed by 1938, 250 years after the author's death.

Bunhill Fields Burial Ground 1873

John Bunyan died on 31st August 1688 was buried at Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, used by nonconformists. The inscription on his tomb stated John Bunyan Author of Pilgrims progress Ob. 31 August 1688 AET. 60 Restored by public subscription under the presidency of the Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury May 1862 ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Reed, C. (1893). History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground. United Kingdom: C. Skipper and East. Accessed from Google Books https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/History_of_the_Bunhill_Fields_Burial_Gro/bghIAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 Accessed by Trevor Pickup on 24th April 2024

• John Bunyan at Wikipedia
• John Bunyan Biography
• The Bunyans of Elstow
• Reed, Charles. History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (C. Skipper and East, London, 1893, 1902) Page 36.
• Armitage, Thomas. A History of the Baptists Traced by Their Vital Principles and Practices (Bryan Taylor, New York, 1887) Page 474.

See also:

• Records of the Family of Deacon, of Kettering and London, with notices of allied families