John Ryland

John Ryland (1753–1825) was an English Baptist minister.

The son of John Collett Ryland, he was born at Warwick on 29 January 1753. Before he was 15, he began teaching in his father's school. On 13 September 1767 he was baptised in the River Nene, near Northampton, and, after preaching at small gatherings of Baptists from 1769, was formally admitted into the ministry on 10 March 1771. Until his twenty-fifth year he assisted his father in his school at Northampton, and in 1781 was associated with him in the charge of his church. after his father's retirement in 1786, he had sole charge of the congregation.

In December 1793 Ryland became minister of the Broadmead chapel in Bristol, combining with the post the presidency of the Bristol Baptist College. These positions he retained until his death. He joined, on 2 October 1792, in founding the Baptist Missionary Society, and acted as its secretary from 1815 until his death at Bristol on 25 May 1825. On 2 June he was buried in the ground adjoining Broadmead chapel, and on 5 June Robert Hall, who succeeded him as minister, preached a memorial sermon (published 1825).

A convinced Calvinist throughout his life, Ryland moved from the high Calvinism of his father to an evangelical Calvinist position, under the influence of his long-term correspondentJohn Newton, and the writings of the American theologian Jonathan Edwards. He is said to have preached 8,691 sermons. Among his friends were Maria De Fleury, William Carey, John Erskine, Andrew Fuller, Robert Hall, John Newton, John Rippon, and Thomas Scott. The degree of D.D. was conferred on him by Brown University, in 1792.

...
Wikipedia