Rev. John Owen D.D.

From a fine original Picture painted, when he was Vice Chancellor of Oxford 1656. now in the possession of. WiHenry Owen Hall, Hackney.

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The times and places of his meeting were ordered with great prudence, for which indeed he was eminent. He.commonly gathered his people together before their neighbours were out of their beds, and broke up a little before the public worship began. In the afternoon he usually heard the parish minister at Chelford. This course he continued till 1678, in which year he died. He preached to the very last Lord's day of his life, and rose on the day of his decease as usual; but finding himself ill, he lay down on his bed, and called for his will, which was ready drawn: he sealed it, and died soon after. He had for a good while been preaching his own funeral sermon, from 2 Cor. v. 1,3. He was an excellent preacher; a kind and faithful friend; well qualified to give advice, either for soul or body, and very affable to younger ministers. His sermons were close and methodical, full of sound argument and apt similitudes, and delivered with much zeal. He was a great textuary, and a very good expositor. His prayers were fervent, and his expressions pleasing, copious, and fluent. He was useful to many, and his loss was much lamented.

GOOSTRY. Mr. JOHN BUCKLY.

#HARGRAVE. Mr. SAMUEL SLATER. He had been turned out before from Cristleton; where, in the year 1655, he succeeded Mr. Marston.

West KIRKBY in WIRRAL [R.] Mr. JOHN CartWRIGHT. He was presented to this living in 1654. After his ejection he was chaplain to the pious lady Wilbraham at Woodhey. He died Feb. 17, 1688. He was a man of an excellent, sedate, serious spirit, and a very solid judicious preacher.

Born in

MACCLESFIELD. Mr. JAMES BADSHAW. Darcy Leaver, of a considerable family. His father had three sons, whom he trained up at Oxford to the three learned professions, of law, divinity, and physic. James was for some time minister at Wigan in Lancashire, and lived in the parsonage; but Mr. Hotham obtaining it, he was called to Macclesfield, where the Act of uniformity silenced him. He then lived in his own house at Darcy Leaver, and obtained leave for a while to preach at Houghton chapel in Dean parish; and afterwards at Bradshaw chapel, by the connivance of Mr. Bradshaw of Bradshaw-Hall, reading some of the prayers, without ever subscribing. He

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was a man of incomparable abilities, ready elocution, solid learning, a very good preacher, a ready disputant, and every way well accomplished for the ministry. He died in 1683, aged 73.

MALPAS [R.] Mr. GEORGE MANWARING. He was born at Wrenbury, and supported by Mr. Cotton of Cumbermere, at the university, where he had the reputation of a good scholar. He was first chaplain to Sir Henry Delves, afterwards rector of Baddely, and chaplain to Sir T. Manwaring. After the wars he was removed to Malpas, whence he was ejected at the Restoration. He was eminent for expounding scripture. The tenor of his life and conversation was exemplary, especially for plainness, integrity, and charity. He constantly gave all the milk which his dairy yielded, on the Lord's day, to the poor. Mr. P. Henry says of him, "The restraint he lay under in his latter days was "his great grief;

"His tears, when he might sow no more, "Watering what he had sown before." He died in a good old age, March 14, 1670.

MARBURY. Mr. BRUCE. He was a lively affectionate preacher, and of an unblameable conversation. He took abundance of pains in catechizing publicly, and in repeating sermons at his own house every Lord's-day in the evening. He was much lamented when he was ejected. His parishioners were kind to him upon his removal, and there was sufficient occasion for it; for he had a wife and several small children, with but little to subsist upon. On his leaving Marbury, he retired to London, and preached to a pretty numerous auditory at his own house in George-yard near Smithfield: and afterwards he preached frequently at Islington. He was for some time chaplain to Sir Anthony Irby, but at length went into Scotland, which was his native country. What became of him afterwards is uncertain.

MARPLE. Mr. JOHN JONES. He was born in Wales. He officiated for some time in his younger years at Tarperly church, after the manner of the church of England; but being afterwards dissatisfied with it, he was invited by two pious gentlewomen, Mrs. Jane and Mrs. Mary Done, to reside with them at Utkinton-Hall, as their chaplain. Upon their removal to Harden, he went with them. Being earnestly importuned by the inhabitants of the township of

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Marple to labour statedly among them in their chapel, he accepted the invitation. He lived in the neighbourhood, and preached there every Lord's day, catechized young persons in public, and administered the sacraments. He had a vast

auditory, and his ministry was attended with great success. He brought several persons who had been guilty of scandalous enormities, publicly to acknowledge their faults, and profess their repentance. After some years thus spent, he was forced to desist from preaching here, even before the Restoration. He afterwards made several removes to chapels in this neighbourhood. He was always content with a small allowance from his people, given to hospitality, and bounti ful to the needy, yet his estate manifestly increased. The last chapel he laboured at was Mellor, on the borders of Derbyshire, out of which, in 1660, he was excluded by some leading gentlemen, upon a groundless pretence of his being not well affected to kingly government. In some following years he preached privately in his own house, which he enlarged for the better accommodation of those that attended his ministry. But he met with much opposition, and received no little damage from his enemies, on account of his Nonconformity. He was seized and imprisoned for some time in Chester; his house was rifled under pretence of seeking for arms, and some goods were actually taken away, though he had not been guilty of any kind of disloyalty. Being called to preach at Manchester, he was suddenly taken ill on the Lord's-day, and was not without difficulty brought to his own house. He gave serious advice to his friends and visi tors, as his acute pains would allow him, and finished his course in Aug. 1671, in the 72d year of his age.

He had a considerable share of learning and ministerial abilities. In his will he devised eight pounds per annum, out of the profits of his lands in Marple, for the maintenance of two poor boys in Tarperly town, three years in school, to be chosen by the overseers of the poor for the time being, ordering that the same sum should in the fourth year be employed towards procuring them some suitable trades; and that, if his son died without lawful issue, this sum should be appropriated to these uses for ever. He was an affectionate preacher, and a zealous promoter of family worship. His prayers upon special occasions were admirable. He was a great opposer of the Quakers, and undertook, with some other ministers, to dispute with them publicly, which he did before vast numbers of people. The dispute was managed

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closely and calmly, and had good effects. He was a bok! reprover of sin, though in the case of some offenders he could easily foresee, what he experienced afterwards, that it would turn to his outward prejudice.-He was of the congregational persuasion, of a catholic spirit, and for holding communion with all that agreed in the main points of Christianity, though they entertained different sentiments about lesser matters. He told some of his friends, who were for separating from their brethren, because they were not altogether of their own principles, "That for his part he would be one "with every body that was one with Christ." He had a son brought up to the ministry, and fixed in Chadkirk near Marple, where he exercised his ministry with good encourage

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MOBBERLEY. Mr. ROBERT BARTON.

MOTTSHAM [C.] Mr. FRANCIS SHELMODINE.

NESTON [V.] Mr. SAMUEL MARSDEN. He was the eldest son of Mr. Ralph Marsden, who died June 30, 1648. He went into Ireland after his ejectment, and died there in 1677. The other three sons are mentioned elsewhere.

NORBURY. Mr. JOHN JOLLIE. Of Trin. Col. Dublin. He was brother to Mr. T. Jollie, of Altham in Lancashire, who for a short time was assistant to Mr. Angier of Denton, Going to preach one Lord's day in the chapel at Norbury, after the Act of uniformity had taken place, he found the doors locked. The people being unwilling to lose the opportunity, opened them, and he preached as usual. This made a very great noise, and some neighbouring gentlemen were so officious as to acquaint the king and council with the matter, aggravating the business, as if the chapel doors had been broken. Whercupon a pursuivant was sent down, who brought up Mr. Jollie. Being before the king and council, the question was, "Whether Norbury chapel, which was an inconsiderable building, in a field near Norbury-hall, was a consecrated place?" Mr. Jolle denied that it was, and Sir Peter Leicester's Hist. Antiq. was brought to decide the question. The earl of Shaftesbury, upen lord Delamere's letter, procured him his discharge. He was averse to the Common Prayer and Ceremonies, but much approved the Scotch presbytery. He used to say, "A Chris"tian's greatest danger lay in lawful things." He was much engaged in acts of praise, and in pious ejaculations. He

would