John Towers (minister)

John Towers (1747?–1804) was an English Independent minister.

Life

Towers was born in Southwark in about 1747. His father was a secondhand bookseller, and his elder brother, about ten years his senior, was Joseph Towers, later well known as a biographer.

John went to sea as a lad, and was afterwards apprenticed to a London packer. He taught himself Greek and Hebrew, and began to preach as an independent. A secession from Jewin Street independent congregation chose him as pastor, and leased the Presbyterian meeting-house in Bartholomew Close, where he was ordained in 1769. For some years he conducted a day school. A new meeting-house was built for him in the Barbican in 1784, and his ministry was successful. He died on 9 July 1804, and was buried on 17 July in Bunhill Fields. He was twice married.

He published Polygamy Unscriptural (1780) (in response to Martin Madan), and sermons.

References

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