John Jennings 1687/8-1723

John JENNINGS 1687/8-1723

Biographical Note

Born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, son of the ejected minister John Jennings and Mary Jennings. Studied for the ministry at the academy at Attercliffe run by Timothy Jollie, ca. 1703-9. From 1709 he was in charge of the nonconformist congregation at Kibworth Harcourt, conducting his own academy there from 1715, where his methods as tutor were to be highly influential on the running of later Nonconformist academies. In 1722 he became minister of the Presbyterian congregation at Hinkley, Leicestershire, to where his academy moved. He married twice: no details have been established of his first wife; his second wife was Anna Wingate.

Books

He used a printed book label (‘Johannis Jennings | Liber, MDCC’): Lee 235 (noting an example with the number ‘I’ added to the year in manuscript).

His most famous student, Philip Doddridge, owned several books formerly belonging to him, including at least one with this label, now at Dr Williams’s Library.

Sources

• Lee, B. N. Early printed book labels. Pinner, 1976.
• Nuttall, G. F. ‘Philip Doddridge’s library’. Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society, 17 (1952), 29-31.
• Whitehouse, T. 'John Jennings (1687/8-1723)'. Dissenting Academies Online: Database and Encyclopedia.
• Wykes, D. L. ‘Jennings, John (1687/8–1723), Independent minister and tutor’. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.