John Owen

“ John Owen, and in his earnest sermons was never weary in setting forth 'the unsearchable riches of Christ.' 'And yet,' witnesses Guyse, 'in my freest converse with him I have with pleasure observed a remarkable tenderness in his spirit as to judging the state of those who differed from him, even in points which he took to be of very great importance' (as before, p. 81) . He died on 20 Jan. 1729-30. He is one of the many venerable men laid to rest in Bunhill Fields, not far from John Bunyan's grave. ”

“ He clutched at the bits of ashes, coal and pebbles which were falling through his fingers, the wealth which the Gods had lavished on him so prodigiously.
"Tell me," he cried hoarsely, "are your eyes not blinded by the brilliance of my stones?"
"My surprise at what you tell me is acute," I declared truthfully. "I can scarcely find words to express my thoughts."
"Don't try," said John Rust grandly. "The greatest rhetoricians the world has ever known have never invented words even to suggest their true magnificence. . . . . Nor is this treasure all I possess. I own the world! ”

“ Owen bore a high character for temperance of life, generosity to the poor, and charity towards those who differed from him. He died on 15 March 1699–1700, in his sixty-first year, according to the inscription on his tombstone in Llanegryn churchyard. Of his children, John (d. 27 June 1700) succeeded him as minister at Bronclydwr; one daughter married Edward Kenrick of Wrexham (who succeeded his brother-in-law at Bronclydwr) , and another William Farmer of Whitley, Shropshire. ”

“ From 1895 to 1899 he was major-general on the staff commanding artillery brigade at Malta, and was promoted to lieutenant-general and received the reward for distinguished service. After serving as President of the Ordnance Committee, he was promoted to general in 1904 and Colonel-Commandent, R.A., in 1906 when he retired. He had been made C.B in 1902 and was advanced to K.C.B. in 1906. Sir John Owen was unmarried He had lived at Henley-on-Thames for the last 14 years In his younger days he was fond of shooting and fishing. ”

“ Owen wrote his defence of revelation in the year 1659, before the end of the Commonwealth;—at a still earlier period in 1655, when Oliver Cromwell was on the throne, before any of the authors now mentioned had published a word upon the subject, Richard Baxter produced his Unreasonableness of Infidelity. It is thrown into the form of the Spirit’s witness to the truth of Christianity, so far reminding us of John Owen’s later work. Baxter, however, assigns a much higher place to the evidential force of miracles than did his contemporary ”

“ By his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Fleetwood [q. v.] , he inherited the latter's house at Stoke Newington, Middlesex. When in London, of which he became an alderman, he attended the independent meeting-house in Leadenhall Street, over which Dr. John Owen presided, and continued a member under successive ministers until his death. In early life he used to take down in shorthand the discourses of famous preachers, that he might read them to his family. Thirteen sermons of John Owen, preserved in this way, were published by Hartopp's grand-daughter, Mrs. ”

“ OWEN, GEORGE (d. 1665) , York herald, son of George Owen (1552–1613) [q. v.] , by his second wife, was ‘gott before marriage,’ and was born at Henllys in Pembrokeshire. He was appointed rouge croix in the place of John Bradshaw on 28 Feb. 1626 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. His patent as rouge croix is given in Rymer's Fœdera, ed. Hayne, vol. viii. pt. i. p. 214) , and was promoted to the post of York herald by signet in December 1633, and by patent 3 Jan. following. He is probably to be identified with the George Owen who was admitted at Gray's Inn 4 Aug. ”

“ Owen married Margaret, daughter of Robert Puleston, rector of Gresford, and had seven sons—John Lewis of Cwrt Plas yn dre, Hugh of Cae'rberllan, Edward of Hengwrt, Gruffydd of Peniarth, Robert of Bronclydwr, Simon and Ellis—and four daughters: Elin, Elizabeth, Catrin, and Mary. His descendant, Hugh Owen (1639–1700) [q. v.] , is separately noticed. Many important Merionethshire families, such as the Wynnes of Peniarth and the Vaughans of Nannau, trace their descent from him. ”

“ Within these again was a stout stockade of timber, enclosing a vast arena of trodden earth, large enough to contain all the cattle of the People of Fire in times of danger, and to serve as a review ground for their impis in times of peace or festival.
At the outer gate of the kraal there was a halt, while the keepers of the gate despatched a messenger to their king to announce the advent of the white man. Of this pause Owen took advantage to array himself in the surplice and hood which he had brought with him in readiness for that hour. Then he gave the mule to John to lead behind him. ”

“ Of a very different nature to The Life of Owen is the article which Sir W. H. Flower has contributed to the Dictionary of National Biography. It is of necessity much compressed, but it contains all that is really essential for the proper comprehension of Owen’s scientific career, and praise and blame are meted out with calm impartiality. For ourselves, we have a sincere admiration for Owen, but an admiration which does not exclude a readiness to admit that he had defects. In what we are about to say we do not propose to draw a fancy portrait. ”

“ Such a situation would have been difficult even for a born leader of men; but for Owen, whose gifts did not lie in that direction, it meant either resignation or acceptance of the inevitable. He chose the latter, and, dropping the sword of a despot, assumed the peaceful mantle of a constitutional sovereign. His reputation did good service to the collections in the way of attracting specimens of all kinds from all parts of the world ”

“ Owen is in the drawing-room, Sara," she said. "Will you go in and see him, please? I will follow you in a moment. I met him on his way here, and offered him your vacant place in the carriage."
"He comes rather often, doesn't he?" said Sara, her eyes still on her father's face.
"Yes, he comes often. But it is natural that he should wish to come. As the Major has observed before this, the rector of St. John's must always rely for his most congenial society, as well as for something of guidance, too, upon Carroll Farms." ”

“ OWEN, JOHN (1821–1883) , Welsh musician, known in Wales by his pseudonym of ‘Owain Alaw,’ was born in Crane Street, Chester, on 14 Nov. 1821. His father was the captain of a small vessel; both parents were natives of Llanfachreth, Merionethshire, but had settled in Chester shortly before his birth. Owen began life as apprentice to a firm of cutlers, Messrs. Powell & Edwards; but in 1844, having shown a conspicuous aptitude for music, he gave up business and became a professional musician. ”

“ We have no wish to underrate Owen’s brilliant talents, or his perseverance, or his power of sustained work with a definite end in view; but at the same time it would be absurd 352to deny that he had good-fortune to thank for a large part of his first successes. What else made Abernethy, at their first interview, give him just the appointment best calculated to bring his peculiar gifts into the light of day? What else made the same patron procure his appointment, two years later, as assistant-conservator of the Hunterian collections, out of which all his future celebrity was developed? ”

“ But he sat pale and rigid, tearing off the feather of a quill with his teeth, but showing no other sign that he had heard the judge.
‘It is the prisoner who must suffer most by such a line of defence.’ (Here Eleanor looked up suddenly, as if she had only just begun to pay [Pg 173] attention to what was going on.) ‘Its natural effect on your minds must be to induce you to ask yourselves not the real question before you, namely, is Eleanor Owen guilty or not? But this other question: which is guilty, Eleanor Owen or John Lewis? And to that you could, as conscientious men, give only one answer. ”

“ In October 1824 Owen matriculated at the University of Edinburgh. There, in addition 350to the courses that were obligatory, he attended the ‘outside’ lectures in comparative anatomy delivered by Dr John Barclay. From these he derived the greatest benefit, and used in after-years to speak of Barclay with affectionate regard, as ‘my revered preceptor.’ It is noteworthy that, while at Edinburgh, Owen and one of his friends founded a students’ society, which at his suggestion was called, by a sort of prophetic instinct, the Hunterian Society. ”

“ OWEN, DAVID (1794–1866) , Welsh journalist, best known as ‘Brutus,’ was born in 1794 at Llanpumsaint, near Carmarthen, where his father, Benjamin Owen (a shoemaker) , was parish clerk. His mother was a member of a baptist church. Though he was not sent from the district to school, he received a good education, including the elements of Latin. After a brief experience of medical studies he resolved to enter the baptist ministry. He joined the Baptist College at Bristol, but in a year the petty persecutions of his fellow-students, debt, and a roving spirit drove him back to Wales. ”

“ Owen, perhaps, was more strict in his views of Sabbath observance than Baxter; yet he spoke of its being no small mistake that men have laboured more to multiply directions about external duties than to direct a due sanctification of the day according to the spirit and genius of Gospel obedience; and he did not deny that some, measuring others by themselves, tied people up unto such long tiresome duties, and rigid abstinences from refreshments, as clogged their minds, and turned the whole service of the day into a wearisome bodily exercise which profiteth little. ”

“ OWEN, GORONWY or GRONOW (1723–1769?) , Welsh poet, son of Owen Goronwy, a tinker, and Jane Parry, his wife, was born on 1 Jan. 1723 in a small cottage at Rhos Fawr, in the parish of Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf, Anglesey. His father, though not without talent, was idle and drunken, and it was only through the strenuous efforts of his mother, a woman of energy and character, that Owen obtained his early education. He first attended a school at Llanallgo, near his home, which has been supposed to be one of the many circulating schools established by Griffith Jones (1683–1761) [q. v.] ”

“ Fuller says of Owen: "He was bred a fellow in Jesus College, in Cambridge, where he commenced Doctor of Divinity, and was chaplain to King Charles whilst he was a prince. A modest man, who would not own the worth he had in himself, and therefore others are the more engaged to give him his due esteem. ”

“ Some fruitless efforts were made by Lewis Morris and his family to find him a place in Wales. His next move was, in 1753, to a curacy at Walton, near Liverpool, worth 35l. per annum, to which were soon added a house in the churchyard and 6l. for the superintendence of the school. Owen was now in fairly good circumstances, but he was in ill-health, and visited Liverpool taverns more frequently than was desirable. In May 1755 he accepted the post of secretary to the newly established Cymmrodorion Society of London, with the prospect of becoming minister of a Welsh church in the metropolis. ”

“ We can well believe this, and the Life is full of touching references to her solicitude for her darling son. The interest she felt in all that he did even led her to read through his scientific papers and his catalogue of the Hunterian collection, with what profit to herself we are not informed. Her husband died in 1809; but the family seem to have been left in fairly affluent circumstances, and continued to live, as before, at Lancaster. Owen’s education began at the grammar-school there in 1810, when he was 349six years old, and ended in 1820, when he was apprenticed to a local surgeon. ”

“ And yet he was not a great thinker; his name is not associated with any far-reaching generalization, or any theory fruitful of wide results. As a comparative anatomist, and as a paleontologist, he did plenty of good and solid work. But these pursuits are most commonly those of a recluse. The man who engages in them must be content, as a general rule, with the four walls of his laboratory, and the applause of a small circle of experts. Not so Professor Owen, as he was most commonly designated, even after he had received knighthood. ”

“ He gave popular lectures, but they were not 395printed [123] ; he wrote what he intended to be a work for all time, but it has faded out of recollection, and the whole theory of the archetype is now as dead as his own Dinornis. Nor was he at pains to surround himself with a circle of pupils who might have handed down the teaching of the Master to another generation, as Cuvier’s teaching was handed down by his pupils. It was one of Owen’s defects that he was repellent to younger men. ”

“ Owen is very strong. "Whilst all the issues of providential dispensations in reference to the public concernments of these nations are perplexed and entangled, the footsteps of God lying in the deep, where His paths are not known; whilst in particular, unparalleled distresses, and strange prosperities are measured out to men, yea to professors; whilst a spirit of error, giddiness, and delusion goes forth with such strength and efficacy, as it seems to have received a commission to go and prosper ”

“ Owen also presented a loyal address, in which he expressed the joy of the Independents in declaring their loyalty; not only as that loyalty rested upon grounds common to all his subjects, but also as it arose from what His Majesty had just done in reference to liberty of conscience. Owen humbly prayed for the continuance of the Royal favour, assuring the King of the intercessions of Independents in his behalf, that God would continue His presence to him, and preserve him in counsels and thoughts of indulgence. ”