John Bunyan

1628–1688

Introduction

Lost Manuscripts

No autograph literary manuscripts by Bunyan are known to survive. His manuscripts are lost despite the fact that at least fourteen of them are recorded as being preserved after his death, and purchased in 1691 from his son John, one of them serving as printer's copy as late as the mid-18th century. In the Mercurius Reformatus of 11 June 1691 an advertisement appeared stating that John Bunyan hath left behind him Ten Manuscripts prepared by himself for the Press before his death and that his widow was desired to print them (with some other of his Works, which have been already printed, but are at present not to be had) which will make together a Book of 10s. in sheets, in Fol. (Harrison, Bibliography, pp. xxv-xxvi). The resulting Folio edition of Bunyan's Works, which was published in London in 1691-2, was the work of Charles Doe, comb-maker of Southwark. In what he proclaimed on the title-page was only The First Volume of his intended edition, he printed Ten of [Bunyan's] Excellent Manuscripts prepared for the Press before his Death, never before Printed. The number of pages in the volume ran to about 155 Sheets instead of near a Hundred and Forty Sheets, the number previously proposed to subscribers, the error of computation arising from the smallness of the Writing of the Manuscripts (Harrison, Bibliography, pp. 65-6, and see also Brown-Harrison, pp. 415-28). The ten manuscripts printed in this form contained the following works: An Exposition on the Ten first chapters of Genesis and part of the Eleventh, Justification by imputed righteousness, Paul's Departure and Crown, Israel's Hope Encouraged, The Desires of the Righteous Granted, The Saint's Privilege and Profit, Christ a Compleat Saviour, The Saints' Knowledge of Christ's Love, The House of the Forest of Lebanon and Of Antichrist and his Ruine, and of the Slaying of the Witnesses. The titles of four further works remaining in manuscript are mentioned by Doe in another publication six years later. Two of the four — A Pocket Concordance to the Scriptures and A Christian Dialogue — are not known ever to have been printed and the manuscripts (like all the others) are unaccounted for. The third additional work — The Heavenly Foot-Man — was published by Doe as a separate volume in 1698. Doe observes in the volume (in a catalogue of Bunyan's works) that The four Books following [viz. the four additional works remaining in manuscript] were never yet Printed, except this now of the Heavenly Footman, which I bought in 1691, now six years since, of Mr. John Bunyan, the eldest son of our Author (Harrison, Bibliography, pp. 69-70, and Brown-Harrison, pp. 429-30). The fourth additional work — A Relation of the Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan — was not printed until 1765, the publisher being James Buckland, who was probably acting at the instigation of Samuel Palmer, editor of the Nonconformist Memorial (Harrison, Bibliography, pp. 70-1). Buckland's copy-text was later described by Joseph Gurney in The Evangelical Magazine, 21 (1813), 148, as a manuscript in Mr. Bunyan's hand-writing, a very fair copy sewed up in a little book, and as having been purchased in the summer of 1765 from Bunyan's aged and infirm grand-daughter [Hannah Bunyan] at Bedford for five guineas. The circumstances of this purchase suggest either that the manuscript acquired by Doe in 1691 was subsequently re-acquired by the Bunyan family in Bedford or else that two manuscript copies were preserved — one purchased by Doe, the other retained by the family. In any event, none of these manuscripts has come to light in more recent times; neither (apart from those copied out in the Church Book) has any of Bunyan's original letters which, according to Doe, were many.

Alleged Examples of Bunyan's Handwriting

In the absence of Bunyan's literary manuscripts, various other documents, signatures and inscriptions have been attributed to him over the years. Of these probably only two have an undoubted claim to authenticity and have been given entries below (BuJ 3-4).

Other alleged examples of Bunyan's handwriting — chiefly signatures — range from the possibly authentic to the undoubtedly spurious. Where uncertainty persists, it is because signatures alone — which may quite legitimately be subject to considerable variation during a person's lifetime — are rarely sufficient evidence on which to base positive judgments (especially when, as in this case, there is so little authenticated autograph material for comparison); also because there were apparently several John Bunyans living in the Bedford area in the writer's lifetime (two at Cranfield and one at Streatley, for example). For the record, however, the following is a list of alleged miscellaneous specimens of Bunyan's hand known at present (though others may well turn up in due course):

1.: Signature of John Bynyon on a petition to the Committee of the Eastern Association signed by att lest a Hundred persons inhabitinge w^thin the three Hundreds of Newport Pagnell in the Countie of Bucks, arguing in favour of the disbanding of the garrison at Newport Pagnell, [1640s, before June 1647].Hitherto unrecorded. Possibly the signature of the teenaged John Bunyan, future author, who served in the garrison at Newport Pagnell between c.October 1644 and c.July 1647 (see below). No other signatures by Bunyan of such an early date are known.University of Kansas, MS E107, f. 384.
2.: Signature of John Bunyan on a petition to Oliver Cromwell signed by 36 citizens of Bedfordshire; 12 May 1653.Facsimiles of the signature in Offor, I, xxxviii; in Godber, p. 47, No. 3; and in Brown-Harrison, after p. 122. Authenticity accepted by George Offor and by Harrison; rejected by John Brown, Godber, Sir Hilary Jenkinson and T.J. Brown.Society of Antiquaries, MS 138, ff. 141-2v.
3.: List of applications for licences to preach by Congregational ministers in Bedfordshire and adjoining counties, including the name of John Bunyan [1 May 1672]. Facsimile examples in Godber, p. 47, No. 1; Brown-Harrison, after pp. 122 and 216; and in Ray Rawlins, The Guinness Book of Autographs (London, 1977), p. 32. Authenticity accepted by Godber (as easily recognizable as the hand in the Church Book) and by Harrison, but rejected by T.J. Brown (who regards the hand as closer to that of Bunyan's fellow pastor Samuel Fenn).National Archives, Kew, SP 29/321/58 (Museum, case W6).
4.: Signatures of John Bunyan and his wife Elizabeth B (the latter written twice) on the title-page of an exemplum of The Whole Book of Psalmes (Cambridge, 1637) [STC 2675].Formerly bound with 5 below. Owned in the USA after 1873 by the Claflin family. Facsimile of the title-page in Paul Kaufman, Bunyan Signatures in a Copy of the Bible, BC, 8 (Winter, 1959), 427-8. Possibly genuine and, if so, they include the only known examples of the signature of Bunyan's second wife, Elizabeth (d.1691). Privately owned in the USA (?).
5.: Signature of John Bunyan on the title-page of the New Testament in a printed exemplum of The Holy Bible (Cambridge, 1637). Formerly bound with 4 above, and owned by the American statesman Charles Sumner (1811-74). Bookplate of Richard Blofeld.Recorded in Brown-Harrison, p. 489, and in Paul Kaufman, loc. cit. Harvard, Houghton STC 2326.
6.: Signature of John Bunyan, his Booke, 1658 cut from an exemplum of St Augustine, Opera (Basle, 1489) once owned by one Thomas Wynyngton. Facsimile (apparently of this, described as cut from a volume of St Augustine's Works, 1580) in the catalogue of the R.B. Adam Library (New York, 1929), III, after p. 41. The volume sold at Sotheby's, 17 June 1858, Lot 227, to Bumstead. The Adam Library was sold to Donald and Mary Hyde (Lady Eccles) and is currently untraced.
7.: Signature of John Bvnyan written in capital letters at the foot of each title-page in the three volumes of an exemplum of John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (London, 1641), the date 1662 added to the name in the third volume. Acquired (according to Robert Southey) in the 1780s by Mr Wontner and later, in 1841, by the Bedfordshire General Library; offered for sale by the Bedford Literary and Scientific Institute at Sotheby's, 26 May 1911, Lot 720 (withdrawn). Facsimiles of the title-page in the third volume in the Sotheby's sale catalogue and in The Connoisseur (June, 1911) p. 133, and of a signature in Godber, p. 48, and elsewhere. Facsimile of some other 17th-century writing in the volumes in Offor, I, xxxvii. Authenticity rejected by Godber and by T.J. Brown. Also recorded in Brown-Harrison, pp. 154, 487.Pierpont Morgan Library, E-3 113 C (19331-3. v. 1-3).
8.: Signature of John Bunyan his Boock in an exemplum of Lancelot Andrewes, XCVI Sermons (London, 1635) owned in 1855 by George Offor. Facsimile of signature in Offor, I, xxxviii. Authenticity rejected by T.J. Brown.Sotheby's, 27 June 1865, Lot 2021. Probably destroyed in a saleroom fire.
9.: Signature of John Bunyan on the title-page of an exemplum of Vavasor Powell, A New and Useful Concordance to the Holy Bible (London, 1673).Owned before 1822 by the Rev. Joseph Tysoe. Facsimiles of the signature in Offor, I, xxxviii; Godber, p. 47, No. 4; and Brown-Harrison, after p. 122. Apparently the signature of Bunyan's son, John, also responsible for 12 below.Facsimiles of the signature in Works of John Bunyan, ed. George Offor, 3 vols (Glasgow, Edinburgh and London), I, xxxviii; Joyce Godber, John Bunyan's Signature, Bedfordshire Magazine, 6 (1957), 47-9, p. 47, No. 4; and John Brown, John Bunyan (1628-1688) His Life, Times, and Work, revised edition by Frank Mott Harrison (London, Glasgow and Birmingham, 1928), after p. 122. Bristol Baptist College, G. R. Display case.
10.: Two lines of writing cut from a printed book.Ascribed to Bunyan by Olinthus Gilbert Gregory in 1837. Authenticity rejected by T.J. Brown. University of Manchester, MS 347/197.
11.: Tiny slip of paper, pipe-shaped, containing the words Lord deliver me from a deceitful heart in this work, ascribed to Bunyan by O[linthus] G[ilbert] Gregory (fl.1830-40s).Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Gratz Collection, British Authors, Case 10, Box 27.
12.: Signature of John Bunyan as witness on two deeds, Harrowden, 28 September 1678.Facsimile of one signature in Godber, p. 47, No. 5, and in The Moot Hall, Elstow (Bedfordshire County Council, 1952), flyleaf. Evidently the signature of Bunyan's son, John, whose Will (signed in 1728) is in the Bedfordshire Record Office (ABP/W 1729-30/112) [facsimile of the signature in Godber, p. 47, No. 61], and who also signed 9 above and a document of 1697 sold at Sotheby's, 24 July 1978, Lot 1, to Alan Thomas.Bedfordshire Record Office, AD 2031, and F 453.13.Allegedly Autograph Signature, — John Bunyan, 1682, on the flyleaf of a printed exemplum of [Thomas Hayne], The Life and Death of Dr. Martin Luther (London, 1641), bound with works by Luther in English translation (1575-1641). American Art Association, New York, 26 January 1922, lot 33, with a reduced facsimile of the signature in the sale catalogue (which seems unlike that of John Bunyan the author).14.A printed exemplum of The Holy Bible (London, 1675), not signed by Bunyan but with the inscription on a flyleaf Hannah Bunyan Born the 17. Day of Septemb in the Year of our Lord 1694 and, in an 18th-century hand, NB This is the Bible which the celebrated M^r. John Bunyan used in the Pulpit. Later inscribed Samuel Palmer July. 18. 1759 and with an inscription by Samuel ?Whithead recording its purchase from the sale of Palmer's books on 15 March 1814.In 1990 privately owned in London.15.A printed exemplum of The Holy Bible (1653) allegedly owned by John Bunyan, reportedly sold at Sotheby's, March 1909 (but not apparently recorded in sale catalogues then). Recorded in W.C. Hazlitt's annotated exemplum of his A Roll of Honour (1908) [British Library, Cup.410.g.343, opposite p. 258].

Relics and Miscellanea

Various alleged personal relics of Bunyan are preserved, chiefly at the Bunyan Meeting Museum, Bedford. The majority are listed in Brown-Harrison, pp. 487-90. They include items which are traditionally claimed to be Bunyan's chair, table, anvil, marquetry cabinet, grandfather clock (owned by his family), pulpit (at Zoar Street Chapel, Southwark), flute, violin, keys, prison plate, walking stick, jug, cup, ring, candlesticks and Bibles, as well as the church doors at which he stood in Bedford.

For various illustrations of these items, see Brown-Harrison, plates after pp. 272, 368 and 420; Offor, I, lviii, lxxv, lxxvi; Cyril Hargreaves and M. Greenshields, Catalogue of The Bunyan Meeting Library and Museum, Bedford (Bedford, 1955), after p. 22; F.T. Wells, Story of John Bunyan Museum (London, 1957), passim; and in other pamphlets and postcards offered for sale at the Bunyan Meeting Museum.

An eighteenth-century account of Bunyan's life by John Lewis, minister of Margate, is in the Bodleian (MS Rawl. C. 409, ff. 2-34). The autograph manuscript of Robert Southey's life of Bunyan, dated 13 March 1830, is in the Pierpont Morgan Library (MA 413). A nineteenth-century Latin translation of The Pilgrim's Progress by William Massey, entitled Peregrinantis progressus, together with a short life of Bunyan also in Latin, is in Aberdeen University Library (MS 385).

Abbreviations

Brown-Harrison: John Brown, John Bunyan (1628-1688) His Life, Times, and Work, revised edition by Frank Mott Harrison (London, Glasgow and Birmingham, 1928).
Godber: Joyce Godber, John Bunyan's Signature, Bedfordshire Magazine, 6 (1957), 47-9.
Harrison, Bibliography: F.M. Harrison, A Bibliography of the Works of John Bunyan, Supplement to the Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 6 (1930 [for 1932]).
Offor: Works of John Bunyan, ed. George Offor, 3 vols (Glasgow, Edinburgh and London).
T.J. Brown: T.J. Brown, English Literary Autographs XXXIII, The Book Collector, 9 (Spring 1960), 53-5.

Verse

One Thing is Needful: or, Serious Meditations upon the Four Last Things ('These Lines I at this time present')

First published in 1665 [no extant exemplum]. The Poems, ed. Graham Midgley (Oxford, 1980), pp. 53-102.

BuJ 1

Copy, evidently transcribed from a printed source.

An octavo miscellany of religious verse, vii + 84 leaves.

Late 17th century

Once owned or used by one Stephen Thompson and probably also by one Sarah Lucas of Arkesden, Essex.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 58 ff. 1r-24r)

Prison Meditations ('Friend, I salute thee in the Lord')

First published in Christian Behaviour; or the Fruits of True Christianity (London?, 1663); The Poems, ed. Graham Midgley (Oxford, 1980), pp. 37-51.

BuJ 2

Copy, headed Prison Meditations, Directed to the heart of Suffering Saints and Reigning Sinners by John Bunyan in prison 1665, evidently transcribed from a printed source (the broadside of 1665).

An octavo miscellany of religious verse, vii + 84 leaves.

Late 17th century

Once owned or used by one Stephen Thompson and probably also by one Sarah Lucas of Arkesden, Essex.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 50 through 99 (MS Rawl. poet. 58 ff. 25r-33r)

Document(s)

*BuJ 3

Autograph

A deed of conveyance, entirely autograph, by which John Bunyan, brazier, of St Cuthbert's parish, Bedford, made over his property to his wife, Elizabeth, written on one side of a single folio leaf, signed by Bunyan and also, as witnesses, by four members of Bunyan's church, namely, John Bardolph, Nicholas Malin, William Hawkes and Lewes Norman, 23 December 1685.

This document was apparently concealed (deliberately), for Bunyan died intestate, and the document was not discovered until the early 19th century (before 1832), reputedly in his cottage in St Cuthbert's Street, Bedford, which was demolished in 1838. In addition to the signature, the name of John Bunyan occurs six times in the text of this document.

1685

Various facsimiles and facsimile examples are in Robert Philips, The Life, Times, and Characteristics of John Bunyan (London, 1839), after p. 578; in Offor, I, frontispiece and pp. xxxviii and lxxii; in Brown-Harrison, after pp. 122 and 338; in Garnett & Gosse (1903), III, after p. 136; in T.J. Brown; in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 65; in Godber, p. 47, No. 2; and in a line-engraving published by the Trustees of the Bunyan Meeting Museum.

Bunyan Meeting Museum ([no shelfmark])

*BuJ 4

Autograph

The Church Book of Bunyan Meeting in Bedford (1650-1821), entitled A Booke Containing a Record of the Acts of A Congregation of Christ, in or about Bedford.

Containing seven passages in Bunyan's hand written between November 1672 and 20 April 1683, when he was pastor or elder of the church: i.e. on pp. 6 (21 names, beginning with Henry Astwood, and a sidenote, in the second column); 7 (nine names, beginning with Matthew Barker, in the second column); 53 (last fourteen lines); 54 (whole page: some 63 lines); 55 (first 37 lines, down to fourteen lines from the bottom); 67 (first seven lines); 69 (last thirteen lines); 70 (last 25 lines); 71 (whole page: 41 lines); 72 (first 28 lines); and 260 (first 18 lines, including the first twelve obituary entries). The name Bunyan (i.e. Jo., John, Tho. or Sister Bunyan) occurs five times in these passages.

1672-83

Complete facsimile of this MS published as The Church Book of Bunyan Meeting 1650-1821, ed. G.B. Harrison (London, Toronto and New York, 1928). Facsimile examples of pp. 52-3 (reduced) in Brown-Harrison, after p. 230, and of p. 71 in T.J. Brown. Facsimile of p. 71 in IELM, II.i (1987), Facsimile III, after p. xxiv.

T.J. Brown has noted that Bunyan's own entries in the Church Book could be identified with reasonable certainty even without the help of the deed [BuJ 3]; as it is, the two documents support each other very nicely.