AO (Foster); ODNB (Article: 3767); R. C. Richardson, 'John Bruen of Stapleford (1560-1625) and his Biographer', Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 166 (2017), 7-24; Hannah Yip.
AO (Foster); ODNB (Article: 3767); R. C. Richardson, 'John Bruen of Stapleford (1560-1625) and his Biographer', Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 166 (2017), 7-24
The exact birth date of John Bruen is unknown. He was born at Bruen Stapleford, Cheshire, c. 1560, into a gentry family. His siblings included Katherine Brettergh (1579-1601), the subject of the bestselling text Death's Advantage Little Regarded by William Harrison and William Leigh (first published in 1602). Bruen matriculated at St Alban Hall at the University of Oxford on 20 December 1577, aged eighteen. He left Oxford without a degree, marrying Elizabeth Cowper (1552-1595/6) in 1580. She was buried on 18 January 1596, and Bruen subsequently married Anne Foxe. John Bruen died on 18 January 1625, aged sixty-five. He was buried at Bruen Stapleford. In 1641, the clergyman William Hinde published a biography of his life, entitled A Faithfull Remonstrance of The Holy Life and Happy Death, of Iohn Bruen, &c. He is remembered today as an iconocolast.