UNNOTICED, YET NOTABLE
ONE bleak November morning—it was damp, chilly and foggy—over three hundred years ago; an event of more than ordinary importance happened in the obscure village of "Helenstow, in the county of Bedford," hard by Harrowden, on the coach road to London. This event, unheralded at the time, was the birth of a son to a "braseyer" named Bonnionn, or Bunyan. Shortly afterward, under date November 30, 1628, the parish register records the baptism of John the sonne of Thomas Bonnionn. Not a great deal is known of this Thomas Bonnionn. He was then a young man of twenty-two, who, as a widower, had married Margarett Bentley, now the proud mother of John. The Bunyans were an old Bedfordshire family that had been settled in the county for six or seven centuries, but their fortunes had been on the decline with the last few generations. At one time, however, they had held considerable land, part of Helenstow, or Elstow, in fact being known as Bonyan's End. Thomas Bonnionn, the present member of the family, was a man of low estate, a "braseyer," like his father. He was neither a tinker nor a gipsy, but a whitesmith who traveled round the countryside doing repairs to all kind of light metal work, household utensils, etc. He was a hardworking respectable tradesman, and was successful enough to be able to bequeath his house freehold when he died. The name Bonnionn later came to be contracted to Bonion, then changed to Bunion, or Bonyan, and finally to Bunyan.
The village of Elstow, at the time of the birth of John Bunyan in 1628, was a small place of only fifty-two families. It was adjacent to the larger "Towne of Bedford," which then boasted of a population of one hundred and fifty families. Elstow was situated on the banks of the broad river "Ouse" which flowed through the fruitful meadow lands that stretched for miles around. On the river banks were weeping willows which dipped their silver leaves into the cool refreshing waters. Close by tall and stately poplars raised their heads towards the azure blue of the sky, while "beautiful lilies" and pale blue forget-me-nots were to be seen growing all around. Situated on the gentle slopes of a near-by hill, at the place called Bonyan's End, was "the cottage tenement" which, "with the appurtenances thereof" were the property of Thomas Bonnionn.
This house, like others of the same period, was built of timber, filled with gravel and cement, thatched with straw, and lighted by quaint many-latticed windows. The interior had the usual large ingle-nook with its big square chimney. As to the furnishings, they would consist of "the pallets furnished with a boulster and counterpaine," and a few "wrought wooden stools." Then "trumbell beds, blankets and skillets, flaxen sheets and pillow-beres" would adorn the bedrooms, and "brasse potts, kettles, and platters" the kitchen. Outside the cottage was the small forge where Thomas Bonnionn did his "braseyer" work, the means by which he earned his living.
Things were cheap in the days of Bonnionn, an acre of land, for example, being valued at three shillings if paid in cash, or three and a half hides if paid in goods. Then Elstow enjoyed the privilege, as mentioned in Doomsday Book, of being exempt from paying rates or taxes, but of course at that time taxation was light as compared with to-day.
Beside the river, and close to the old church, stood the "free and perpetuall grammar scole" built by one of the Lord Mayors of London, and there John Bunyan was to receive the little education that was to be his lot.
The child John was baptized at Elstow Parish Church, on November 30, 1628, the actual date of birth not being recorded. Little is known of the boyhood days of Bunyan, except what can be gathered from references in various works written by himself so many years later. The period at which he was born, however, was an interesting one, and doubtless had a great, if unconscious, influence in molding his thoughts and coloring his imagination. To study the character of the period is to understand the tenor of his teaching. The mention of a few details only must suffice, however, in this short sketch.
The final phases of the Reformation movement were still fresh in the minds of the people. The thirty-nine Articles of Religion had only been in existence some sixty years, and his theological teaching largely corresponds with them. The first complete English Bible was only a century old. People still lived who had passed through the days when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. The reign of Queen Elizabeth had drawn to a close only twenty-five years before. Shakespeare had been dead but twelve years when Bunyan was born. Men such as Baxter, Howe, Fox, Dryden, Pepys the diarist, were all leading actors on the great stage of life during Bunyan's days. Milton was a contemporary, and many have thought that his Paradise Lost, and Bunyan' s Pilgrim's Progress were the two outstanding literary masterpieces of that brilliant period of English prose writing. When Bunyan was less than a year old, Oliver Cromwell rode up to London to take his seat as the Member for Huntingdon.
The times of Bunyan's youth were stirring and terrible ones. The country was rent by strife and civil war, it was governed without a parliament. History was then in the making with such happenings as the Parliamentary Wars, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the Plague and the Great Fire of London, the Dover Treaty, the Monmouth Rising, the Trial of the Seven! What an age to live in!
We read of these events in our history books, and we try to imagine what it meant to those who passed through them, but we cannot know as they did. And yet for the major part of Bunyan's life his companions were nondescript—rustic neighbors, ale-house Neds, nameless soldiers of Cromwell's army, members of a village church, county squires who did not count outside the county. We catch glimpses of these people in his books, lifelike silhouettes of this mixed company whom he had met and conversed with on the way.
His book, Grace Abounding, tells us many incidents about his boyhood days. We can be quite certain that he was a lad with plenty of "go" in him, and whatever he took in hand he did it with all his might.
His schoolmaster could have told us that his wits needed little sharpening, for they were sharp by nature and, if he would, he certainly could learn his lessons as well, aye, and better than the rest of the Elstow lads. It is to be feared, however, that as far as schooling went, it was a case of easily learned and easily lost, for the famous tinker, looking back upon his boyhood's days, says: "I did soon lose that I had learned, even almost utterly." It was evidently with him as it is with not a few now—"in at one ear and out of the other." But alas, how much easier it is to remember bad things than good things, for lad though he was, he soon became a great user of bad words, no doubt imitating in this respect the many around him, "who had not the fear of God before their eyes.”
He knew it was wrong, but even as a little child he found evil habits and the power of sin were too strong for him: but God did not forget him. God hated his sins, but He loved the sinner; and so his conscience did oft-times accuse him of his childish sins, and the consequence of sin was to him a continual fear. For, says Bunyan, "These things, when I was but a child, but nine or ten years old, did so distress my soul, that then in the midst of my many sports and childish vanities, amidst my vain companions, I was often much cast down, and afflicted in my mind therewith, yet could I not let go my sins.”
The boy grew up, and, as a youth, was venturesome and thoughtless, and bid fair to become a regular village loafer, a swearer, and a Sabbath-breaker, above many of his fellow-villagers. But "the good hand of God" was over him; for, "while Satan's blind slave he sported with death" he was wonderfully preserved from death and danger. So those early days were rollicked through, and when he was aged sixteen, his mother died. Then, within a month, the playmate of his childhood, his little sister Margaret, followed his mother: and both in so short a period were laid in their quiet resting-place in Elstow Churchyard.