John Bunyan is perhaps the most famous of the Nonconformist ministers of the mid-seventeenth century to suffer imprisonment because of his preaching (although this actually occurred before the Act of Uniformity was passed). Bunyan, a brazier or mender of pots and pans by trade, had served in the Parliamentarian army during the Civil War and had then returned to his home at Elstow near Bedford. He was converted in 1651 and joined the Bedford congregation of John Gifford in 1653. Two years later he began to preach. For five years he developed this gift while still plying his trade. In 1660, the year of the Restoration, he was arrested and ultimately committed to jail for twelve years.
Bunyan’s imprisonment came to an end in May 1672, and the January before this the Bedford congregation had decided to appoint him as their pastor. His long confinement had strengthened his faith, and his writings had proven his maturity. Indeed, his Pilgrim’s Progress ranks with Foxe’s Book of Martyrs among the greatest of the Christian classics (other famous books include another allegory, The Holy War, and his autobiography, Grace Abounding). He was licensed on 9 May, and a barn belonging to one of his people was licensed as a place of worship, ‘for the use of such as doe not conforme to the church of England who are of the Perswasion commonly called Congregationall’.
John Bunyan’s popularity as a preacher was such that the first time he appeared at his barnchapel the crowds were so great he had to speak to them outside. Before long he was being called ‘Bishop Bunyan’, for he commenced to organize congregations from Bedford to the outskirts of London, and applied for licences for some twentyfour other preachers. On numerous occasions he went to London to preach before great crowds in the various Nonconformist chapels. Often there would be more people than the meeting house could hold, even at seven on a working-day morning. In 1688, on one of his visits to London on horseback, he was drenched with rain and became very ill. He died at the house of a friend on Snowhill and was interred in Bunhill Burying Ground.