John Bryan (nonconformist)

John Bryan, D.D. (died 1676), was an English clergyman, an ejected minister of 1662.

Bryan was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and held the rectory of Barford, near Warwick, but left it to go to Coventry, as vicar of Trinity Church, in 1644. Bryan was appointed by Parliament, and was not cordially welcomed by the vestry.

In 1646 Bryan, assisted by Obadiah Grew, vicar of St. Michael's, held a public disputation on infant baptism in Trinity Church with Hanserd Knollys, the baptist. Though Coventry was a stronghold of puritanism, it was not so well content as were some of its preachers to witness the subversion of the monarchy. Bryan, at the end of 1646, touched upon this dissatisfaction with the course which events were taking in a sermon which was printed. The vestry in 1647 agreed to raise his stipend. In 1652 and 1654 his services were sought by Shrewsbury, and the churchwardens stirred themselves to keep him; but the citizens were less interested in discharging their promises for the support of their clergy. Nevertheless, the puritan preachers remained at their posts until the Act of Uniformity 1662 ejected them.

Bryan took very much the same view as Richard Baxter: to ministerial conformity he had ten objections, but he was willing to practise lay conformity and did so. Bishop John Hacket tried to overcome his scruples, and offered him a month to consider, beyond the time allowed by the act; but Bryan gave up his vicarage, and was succeeded by Nathaniel Wanley, of the ‘Wonders of the Little World’ (1678). Bryan continued to preach whenever and wherever he had liberty to do so; and in conjunction with Grew he founded a presbyterian congregation, which met, from 1672, in licensed rooms. Bryan also educated students for the ministry, though the dissenting academy as a recognised institution dates from Richard Frankland and his Rathmell Academy (1670). Bryan was very ready in controversy, and occasionally an extempore preacher. He was fond of George Herbert's poems, and himself wrote verse. A tithe of his income he distributed in charity. He died at an advanced age on 4 March 1676. His funeral sermon, by Wanley, is a generous tribute.

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