JOHN

BOWRON,

OF COTHERSTONE, YORKSHIRE.

JOHN BOWRON was born at Cotherstone, in the year 1627, and was convinced of the truth by the ministry of George Fox and James Naylor, in 1653. He became an able minister of Christ, and boldly spread abroad the glad tidings of that free and full salvation to be obtained through Him.

It is probable that in the year 1655, he first visited Scotland on a religious account; in 1656, he travelled in Ireland; on his return went a second time into Scotland, having his friend William Stockdale as his companion in the work of the ministry, and proceeding thence into the Orkneys, at the conclusion of his labours there, embarked at Kirkwall for the West Indies.

After extensive service in Barbadoes, John Bowron sailed for Surinam, and having obtained a competent interpreter, afterward travelled for

several hundreds of miles along the coast of Guiana. There he saw the aborigines at their devotions, beating rude drums of hollowed wood and skins, and preached to them the word of the true God, who is worshipped by obedience of the heart, not by superstitious observances. As he proceeded from tribe to tribe, the chiefs listened to his testimony with defference and respect; regarding him, they said, as "a good man come from far to preach the white man's God." He afterward returned to Barbadoes, and making but a short stay, embarked again for England, where he was favoured to arrive after a long and dangerous voyage, during which the passengers and crew, who were about sixty in number, suffered so severely from the shortness of their provisions that several of them died.

In 1665, he was imprisoned on the "Act for Banishment," in Durham jail, and afterward in Richmond house of correction, through several months of a severe winter. For holding a meeting at Croft, near Darlington, he was again committed to Durham jail, besides having a horse and two oxen distrained for his fine. He was at last released by the Bishop of character of Prince of the

Durham, in his
Palatinate.

John Bowron, until late in life, continued

often to travel in the west and south of England, in which services his friend John Longstaff was generally his companion and fellow labourer.

His was a green old age: and when at length his declining strength warned him that he was gently sliding toward the grave, he was found with his loins girded and his lamp burning. He continued in great sweetness of spirit and peace; and a few days before his death, he came cheerfully out of his chamber, and, taking his grand-children by the hand, said," Stay with me; go not away; for I am taking my journey to a city, New Jerusalem, that needeth not the light of the sun nor the light of the moon, for the Lord God and the Lamb is the light. thereof;" and added, “Zion is a precious habitation: he that dwelleth within the gates of Zion shall never want." Again he remarked: "What can be expected? I have seen the wonders of God both by sea and land; and the sea saw the wonders of God and fled, and Jordan was driven back!"

He died at Cotherstone, in his own house in which he was born, upon the fifth of the eighth month, 1704: aged seventy-seven years: a minister fifty-one years.

(Piety Promoted: American Friend.)