Knowles, John (1606-01-01 - 1685-04-10)

John Knowles of Lincolnshire graduated B.A. from Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1623 was elected fellow of St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 1625; he proceeded M.A. in 1627 and was ordained deacon and priest the same year. He was elected to the corporation lectureship at St. Botolph’s in 1635; however, some of his practices, such as his opposition to ceremonies, resulted in his preaching license being revoked and his resignation in 1637. He left for New England in 1639, where he served as co-pastor at Watertown. He joined the board of overseers at Harvard in 1642, and after a brief stay in Virginia returned to Watertown in 1643. Upon his return to England in 1651 he was made lecturer in Bristol Cathedral, rector of St Werburgh and pastor of Castle Green congregationalist church in Bristol. He was deprived of his livings at the Restoration, at which point he moved to London. The Act of Uniformity in 1662 forced him to give up his brief lectureship at All Hallows-the-Great (1661-2). He held conventicles in London in 1664 and 1665 and ministered to presbyterian groups in St Katharine by the Tower and Eastcheap. He was married twice, first to Elizabeth Willis (m. c.1639) and second to Deborah Barwicke (m. c. 1671). He died in London on 10 April 1685 and was survived by his son Samuel and daughters Anne and Martha.