 John Conant was born in Yettington, Devonshire, England on October 18, 1608. He
received the degrees of B. A. and M. A. from Exeter College, Oxford. He
was so proficient in Greek that he often chose to give his debates in
that language. Dr. John Prideaux, then Rector of Exeter College, said of
him, "For Conant, nothing is difficult."
His first charge was in Lymington, Somersetshire. While there, he was
called to be a member of the Westminster Assembly, but seldom sat among
them and never took the Solemn League and Covenant. But neither would
he submit to the terms of the Act of Uniformity, and so was disabled
from the public exercises of his ministerial duties and lost his position
at Exeter as Rector, which he had held since 1649. But in 1670, he
changed his mind, complied, and was re-ordained by Edward Reynolds, whose
daughter he had married in 1651.
He succeeded Simon Ford at All Saints in Northampton, where he stayed,
even though he lost his eyesight in 1686, until he died in 1694. Soli
Deo Gloria plans to do a volume of his sermons in their "The Puritan
Pulpit" series. |
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