Anthony Purver (1702 - 1777)

Born 1702 in Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire, England

Died 17 Jul 1777 at about age 75 in Andover, Hampshire, England

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Biography

Anthony was a Friend (Quaker)

It may be read that Anthony Purver was born the son of a farmer at Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire in 1702, however, it appears that his father is unknown and his mother, Sarah Purver, had him christened at St Peter’s, St Mary Bourne on 28 Dec 1702. No father is listed in the parish register nor has one been identified to date.^[1] Young Anthony was raised by his farmer uncle Thomas Purver (Thomas Philpot alias Purver; the surname seen earlier as Purveyor) of Hurstbourne Tarrant. One burial record places his birth in 1701 but the basis of this remains uncertain.^[2]

Anthony did well at the village school and was apprenticed to a shoe maker. It may be read that his intellect and voracious home reading were such that he was soon explaining more advanced concepts to the local school master. One account says that at the age of ten he ‘taught his master the doctrine of square and cubic roots’.^[1] He read Rusticus ad academicos by the Quaker Samuel Fisher^[3] which argues that scripture is currupted in all translations. This fed Purver's belief that "he was called and commanded" to translate the bible.^[4]

About the age of twenty in 1722, Purver opened a school and a few years later arrived in London where he became a Quaker in 1727, preaching at meetings in various counties. In 1739, he met John Wesley who wrote he was "one of much experience in the ways of God."^[5] On 16 Aug 1738, he married Rachell Cotterel at the Monthly Meeting at Frenchay, Bristol^[6] and with her had two known children. The family lived there where he taught and was clerk of the monthly meeting until returning to Andover in 1758 where he taught on behalf of the local Friends meeting.^[1]

Anthony Purver is best remembered for his translation of the bible, often referred to as the Quaker Bible. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, David Norton writes, "Purver studied Hebrew during his apprenticeship, and also learnt Aramaic, Syriac, Greek, and Latin. He read voluminously in biblical criticism (including rabbinic commentary), in the earlier English translations and in literature. All this finds its way into his translation and the accompanying notes."^[7] Purver began work on the Old Testament in 1733, locking himself away for days awaiting inspiration. About 1742 when some parts were complete, Felix Farley of Bristol issued parts of the work and John Fothergill endorsed and recomended the work in advertisements. The effort was not successful and was criticized by John Wesley.^[8] Purver's efforts were financially assisted and in 1763 Fothergill paid him £1000 for the copyright and published it as "A new and literal translation of all the books of the old and New Testament with notes, critical and explanatory." (London, two folio volumes, 1764) It has been written that the work sometimes anticipates later versions but at the time was not appreciated. To this day, much criticism of the work is copied nearly verbatim from 18th Century establishment criticism which found the concept of a new translation, especially by a self-taught Quaker, more than would be tolerated. However, at the time, the Monthly Review did write "no small share of erudition. This is a work to which we should have thought very few individuals equal, however great and extensive their abilities; and we cannot help admiring the man who hath intrepidity enough to attempt it." ^[9] The "Quaker Bible" is today somewhat rare with first editions often commanding significant sums when they become available.

Anthony Purver died 17 July 1777 at Andover, England and is buried in the Quaker burial-ground there.^[10] His grave is unmarked in the Quaker tradition of the period.

Children

• Hannah (m Isaac Bell, London, 1762), d
• A son

Works (not complete)

• Youth's Delight (1727)
• Counsel to Friends' Children (ran to multiple editions)
• Poem to the Praise of God (1748)
• Bible (completed 1763)

Purver's Translation of the Bible

Purver stated the following regarding his translation:^[1] Axiom I: A translation ought to be true to the original. Axiom II: A translation should be well or grammatically expressed, in the language it is made in. It is well known that those called the living languages do alter, especially ours, who are such a changeable People. Hence it is necessary that new Translations should be made from one Time or Century to another, accommodated to the present use of speaking or writing. Corollary: When a translation is well made, yet some Explanation and Defence of it may be necessary.

Excerpt from Genesis

God created the Heaven and the Earth at the beginning. The Earth, however, was vacant and void, and Darkness overwhelmed the Deep, but the Spirit of God hovered atop of the water…Lastly God looked on all that he had made, and lo it was very good. It had then been Evening and was Morning.

Excerpt from Job, chapter 14

Man who is born of a Woman is of Short time and full of Disquiet. He comes forth, and is cut off, as a Flower; nay, flees away without remaining, like a shadow.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} A Spiritual Dick Whittington, Layanglica, 30 Jun 2011 accessed 19 Jan 2022, also appeared in ‘Lookback at Andover’, the journal of the Andover History and Archaeology Society, 2009 edition.
2. ↑ BMD, Hampshire Genealogical Society, specific original record citation not given by the Society.
3. ↑ S. Fisher, Rusticus ad academicos, 1660, fol. A4v
4. ↑ H. Coleridge, Biographia borealis (1833)
5. ↑ The works of John Wesley, 25.637 Letters, 1721–39, ed. F. Baker (1980)
6. ↑ The National Archives; Kew, England; General Register Office: Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials; Class: RG 6; Piece: 1366
7. ↑ Norton, David, ODNB
8. ↑ Works of John Wesley, 20.81–2
9. ↑ Monthly Review, 1st ser., 32, 1765, 194
10. ↑ The National Archives; Kew, England; General Register Office: Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials; Class: RG 6; Piece: 579

See Also:

• GM, 1st ser., 87/1 (1817), 510
• D. Norton, ‘The Bible as a reviver of words: the evidence of Anthony Purver, a mid-eighteenth-century critic of the English of the King James Bible’, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 4/86 (1985), 515–33 [1]
• D. Norton, A history of the Bible as literature, 2 vols. (1993), 2.73–85
• J. Spence, Observations, anecdotes, and characters, of books and men, ed. J. M. Osborn, new edn, 2 vols. (1966)
• R. Southey and S. T. Coleridge, Omniana, ed. R. Gittings (1969)
• www.aida.demon.co.uk/Friends/Frenchay.html (registration required)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker_Bible (Caution: this Wikipedia entry borrows heavily from a narrow view of Purver's work by a bible organization.)

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Paul Masini and Vance Mead for research assistance in the improvement of this profile.