Samuel Bownas (1676–1753) was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

travelling minister, and writer. He lived in the Lancaster and

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

areas of England. His book ''A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister'' is used to inform Quaker ministry to this day.

Childhood

Samuel Bownas was born in 1676, to Quaker parents, although his father died when he was a month old. His father had been a Friend during the time of Quaker persecution, with meetings of the Friends having been held in his house. Bownas was admitted as a member of

Great Strickland Great Strickland is a village and civil parish in the Eden Valley between the Cumbrian mountains in the west and the Pennines in the east. It is south east of Penrith, and is in the former county of Westmorland. At the 2011 Census Great St ...

( Westmorland) Monthly Meeting as a baby. During his childhood he did not have a great taste for Quakerism or religion at all, although his mother would read accounts of his father's sufferings to him in the evenings, and he went with his mother to meeting and to visit Friends imprisoned in Appleby. He was apprenticed to his uncle as a blacksmith, at the age of 13.

Religious conversion

In 1696, his life was changed. At this time he was apprenticed to Samuel Parrott, a Friend from Briggflatts meeting in

Sedbergh Sedbergh ( or ) is a town and civil parish in Cumbria, England. The 2001 census gave the parish a population of 2,705, increasing at the 2011 census to 2,765. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies about east of Kendal, no ...

. Attending meeting for worship, another Friend, Anne Wilson rose in worship and accused him of being no better for his attendance of meeting for worship, and that would prove perilous for him "in the end". Afterwards he felt called to preach and read the Bible with greater ease. His famous ''A Description of the Qualifications Necessary to a Gospel Minister'' was first printed in 1750. Having first journeyed to Scotland, he sailed for America aboard the ''Josiah'', John Sowden, master. He landed two months later in Potuxant River,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

about 29 May 1702, and continued his work. Bownas died at

Bridport Bridport is a market town in Dorset, England, inland from the English Channel near the confluence of the River Brit and its tributary the Asker. Its origins are Saxon and it has a long history as a rope-making centre. On the coast and withi ...

, Dorset on 2 April 1753.Gil Skidmore, "Bownas, Samuel (1677–1753)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
6 February 2015
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Notes

References

* Bownas, S. ''A Description of the Qualification Necessary to a Gospel Minister.'' Pendle Hill Publications, 1989. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bownas, Samuel English Quakers English religious writers English tax resisters 1676 births 1753 deaths 17th-century Quakers 18th-century Quakers