The Life of John Bunyan [1]
"with its appurtenances," to his
second wife, Ann, to descend, after her death, to her stepson, his
namesake, Thomas, and her own son Edward, in equal shares. This
cottage, which was probably John Bunyan's birthplace, persistent
tradition, confirmed by the testimony of local names, warrants us
in placing near the hamlet of Harrowden, a mile to the east of the
village of Elstow, at a place long called "Bunyan's End," where two
fields are still called by the name of "Bunyans" and "Further
Bunyans." This small freehold appears to have been all that
remained, at the death of John Bunyan's grandfather, of a property
once considerable enough to have given the name of its possessor to
the whole locality.
The family of Buingnon, Bunyun, Buniun, Boynon, Bonyon, or Binyan
(the name is found spelt in no fewer than thirty-four different
ways, of which the now-established form, Bunyan, is almost the
least frequent) is one that had established itself in Bedfordshire
from very early times. The first place in connection with which
the name appears is Pulloxhill, about nine miles from Elstow. In
1199, the year of King John's accession, the Bunyans had approached
still nearer to that parish. One William Bunion held land at
Wilstead, not more than a mile off. In 1327, the first year of
Edward III., one of the same name, probably his descendant, William
Boynon, is found actually living at Harrowden, close to the spot
which popular tradition names as John Bunyan's birthplace, and was
the owner of property there. We have no further notices of the
Bunyans of Elstow till the sixteenth century. We then find them
greatly fallen. Their ancestral property seems little by little to
have passed into other hands, until in 1542 nothing was left but "a
messuage and pightell (1) with the appurtenances, and nine acres of
land." This small residue other entries on the Court Rolls show to
have been still further diminished by sale. The field already
referred to, known as "Bonyon's End," was sold by "Thomas Bonyon,
of Elstow, labourer," son of William Bonyon, the said Thomas and
his wife being the keepers of a small road-side inn, at which their
overcharges for their home-baked bread and home-brewed beer were
continually bringing them into trouble with the petty local courts
of the day. Thomas Bunyan, John Bunyan's father, was born in the
last days of Elizabeth, and was baptized February 24, 1603, exactly
a month before the great queen passed away. The mother of the
immortal Dreamer was one Margaret Bentley, who, like her husband,
was a native of Elstow and only a few months his junior. The
details of her mother's will, which is still extant, drawn up by
the vicar of Elstow, prove that, like her husband, she did not, in
the words of Bunyan's latest and most complete biographer, the Rev.
Dr. Brown, "come of the very squalid poor, but of people who,
though humble in station, were yet decent and worthy in their
ways." John Bunyan's mother was his father's second wife. The
Bunyans were given to marrying early, and speedily consoled
themselves on the loss of one wife with the companionship of a
successor. Bunyan's grandmother cannot have died before February
24, 1603, the date of his father's baptism. But before the year
was out his grandfather had married again. His father, too, had
not completed his twentieth year when he married his first wife,
Anne Pinney, January 10, 1623. She died in 1627, apparently
without any surviving children, and before the year was half-way
through, on the 23rd of the following May, he was married a second
time to Margaret Bentley. At the end of seventeen years Thomas
Bunyan was again left a widower, and within two months, with
grossly indecent haste, he filled the vacant place with a third
wife. Bunyan himself cannot have been much more than twenty when
he married. We have no particulars of the death of his first wife.
But he
second wife, Ann, to descend, after her death, to her stepson, his
namesake, Thomas, and her own son Edward, in equal shares. This
cottage, which was probably John Bunyan's birthplace, persistent
tradition, confirmed by the testimony of local names, warrants us
in placing near the hamlet of Harrowden, a mile to the east of the
village of Elstow, at a place long called "Bunyan's End," where two
fields are still called by the name of "Bunyans" and "Further
Bunyans." This small freehold appears to have been all that
remained, at the death of John Bunyan's grandfather, of a property
once considerable enough to have given the name of its possessor to
the whole locality.
The family of Buingnon, Bunyun, Buniun, Boynon, Bonyon, or Binyan
(the name is found spelt in no fewer than thirty-four different
ways, of which the now-established form, Bunyan, is almost the
least frequent) is one that had established itself in Bedfordshire
from very early times. The first place in connection with which
the name appears is Pulloxhill, about nine miles from Elstow. In
1199, the year of King John's accession, the Bunyans had approached
still nearer to that parish. One William Bunion held land at
Wilstead, not more than a mile off. In 1327, the first year of
Edward III., one of the same name, probably his descendant, William
Boynon, is found actually living at Harrowden, close to the spot
which popular tradition names as John Bunyan's birthplace, and was
the owner of property there. We have no further notices of the
Bunyans of Elstow till the sixteenth century. We then find them
greatly fallen. Their ancestral property seems little by little to
have passed into other hands, until in 1542 nothing was left but "a
messuage and pightell (1) with the appurtenances, and nine acres of
land." This small residue other entries on the Court Rolls show to
have been still further diminished by sale. The field already
referred to, known as "Bonyon's End," was sold by "Thomas Bonyon,
of Elstow, labourer," son of William Bonyon, the said Thomas and
his wife being the keepers of a small road-side inn, at which their
overcharges for their home-baked bread and home-brewed beer were
continually bringing them into trouble with the petty local courts
of the day. Thomas Bunyan, John Bunyan's father, was born in the
last days of Elizabeth, and was baptized February 24, 1603, exactly
a month before the great queen passed away. The mother of the
immortal Dreamer was one Margaret Bentley, who, like her husband,
was a native of Elstow and only a few months his junior. The
details of her mother's will, which is still extant, drawn up by
the vicar of Elstow, prove that, like her husband, she did not, in
the words of Bunyan's latest and most complete biographer, the Rev.
Dr. Brown, "come of the very squalid poor, but of people who,
though humble in station, were yet decent and worthy in their
ways." John Bunyan's mother was his father's second wife. The
Bunyans were given to marrying early, and speedily consoled
themselves on the loss of one wife with the companionship of a
successor. Bunyan's grandmother cannot have died before February
24, 1603, the date of his father's baptism. But before the year
was out his grandfather had married again. His father, too, had
not completed his twentieth year when he married his first wife,
Anne Pinney, January 10, 1623. She died in 1627, apparently
without any surviving children, and before the year was half-way
through, on the 23rd of the following May, he was married a second
time to Margaret Bentley. At the end of seventeen years Thomas
Bunyan was again left a widower, and within two months, with
grossly indecent haste, he filled the vacant place with a third
wife. Bunyan himself cannot have been much more than twenty when
he married. We have no particulars of the death of his first wife.
But he