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
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Towers, Joseph". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
- Jones, J. A., ed. (1849). Bunhill Memorials: sacred reminiscences of three hundred ministers and other persons of note, who are buried in Bunhill Fields, of every denomination. London: James Paul. pp. 280–81.