OWEN, JOHN (1616-1683), Puritan (Independent) divine,
who ‘with Baxter and Howe, stands in the front rank of Puritan divines’; b. in 1616, d. 24 Aug. 1683. His career is recounted in the D.N.B., and has nothing to do with Wales, except that generations of Wales's most famous Calvinistic preachers were nurtured on Owen's works. But he was of Welsh blood. He was the son of Henry Owen, vicar of Stadhampton, Oxon., and thus grandson of Griffith Owen of Talhenbont, Llanegryn, Mer., and great-grandson of ‘baron’ Lewis Owen (d. 1555) (q.v.). He was also first cousin to the mother of Hugh Owen of Bronclydwr (1639-1700) (q.v.) — see J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees, 323. These facts have been rather fancifully embroidered by some who have claimed that Hugh Owen's Dissent resulted from his ‘uncle's’ influence upon him during his Oxford career; but the cold fact is that Hugh Owen did not go to Oxford until the middle of 1660, when John Owen had already left it. There is indeed no proof that the great divine was in any contact with his relations in Wales. Yet, contemporary Welsh Dissenters certainly knew of the relationship, for Henry Maurice (1634-1682) (q.v.) refers to it.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D., F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor.
