JOHN, a famous demagogue, was born of an ancient family in the county of Durham in 1618. After receiving a scanty education, he was apprenticed to a clothier in London; and while in this humble station, his sympathy with the Puritanic party was so strong and intrepid that he became a confidant in all their enterprizes. Repairing at his own instance to Holland, he there printed Bastwick's Merry Litany, and during a sojourn of several months, and after his return to London, continued to publish vehement attacks upon the bishops and prerogative, which eventually, in 1637, brought him under the lash of the Star Chamber. After unflinchingly enduring 500 scourges and exposure on the pillory, he was thrown into the Fleet, and lay under a double load of irons until the meeting of the Long Parliament in 1640. During the civil war he fought valiantly, and was promoted by the Earl of Manchester to the rank of lieutenant-colonel; but offended at the rising prevalence of Presbyterianism, he exchanged the sword for the pen in 1645, and amid repeated prosecutions and imprisonments, directed a ceaseless onset of pamphlets against the dominant party, which led to his banishment in 1650. In 1653, returning to England without a warrant, he underwent a trial; but upon giving security for good behaviour in the future, he was allowed to remain in the kingdom. He then became a preacher among the Quakers at Eltham in Kent, and died there in 1657.