Joseph Gurney Bevan (1753–1814) was a British
Quaker, known as a writer of
apologetics.
Life
The son of
Timothy and Hannah Bevan, he was born in London on 18 February 1753. His father hired the English educator, historian, and Quaker
Robert Proud to tutor him and his brother.[1]
His father gave him a share in his business of a chemist and druggist in Plough Court,
Lombard Street. In 1784 his mother died. He retired from trade in 1794 with a loss of capital, having refused, from conscientious reasons, to supply armed vessels with drugs.
He filled for many years the station of a Quaker elder. In 1796 he moved to
Stoke Newington. On a visit to friends in Scotland, in 1808, Bevan began to suffer from
cataract in his left eye, and two years later he was attacked by paralysis in his left side. His wife became unable to recognise her own husband. She died in 1813. Bevan at the end of his life had read to him selections from
John Kendall's Collection of Letters,
Thomas Ellwood's Journal, and
Mary Waring's Diary; and spent most of his time in
Tottenham with family connections.
On 12 September 1814 Bevan died, and was buried at the
Quaker Burying Ground, Bunhill Fields.
Reputation
William Thomas Lowndes said that Bevan was the ablest of the Quaker apologists.
William Orme found the Life of Paul insightful by the way of explanation of Quaker theology; and
Thomas Hartwell Horne admired the geographical notes.
A Refutation of some of the more modern Misrepresentations of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, with a life of James Nayler; also a Summary of the History, Doctrine, and Discipline of Friends, 1800. This work addressed the writings of
Mosheim,
Formey,
David Hume, and the editors of the Encyclopædia Britannica, who quoted from
Charles Leslie and
John Wesley.
An Examination of the First Part of a Pamphlet, called An Appeal to the Society of Friends, 1802. A reply to Thomas Foster, its intention was to show that early Quakers were not
Unitarians.
A Short Account of the Life and Writings of Robert Barclay, 1802.
Thoughts on Reason and Revelation, particularly the Revelation of the Scriptures, 1805, 1828, 1853. This is a short work divided into sections on: reason, revelation in general, infidelity, scripture, faith, and experience.
Memoirs of the Life of Isaac Penington, to which is added a Review of his Writings, 1807.
Memoirs of the Life and Travels in the service of the Gospel of Sarah Stephenson, chiefly from her own papers, 1807.
The Life of the Apostle Paul as related in Scripture, but in which his epistles are inserted in that part of the history to which they are supposed respectively to belong; with select notes, critical, explanatory, and relating to persons and places, 1807, and corrected and enlarged 1811 .
A Reply to so much of a Sermon published in the course of last year by Philip Dodd as relates to the well-known scruple of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, against all Swearing, 1808. Against
Philip Stanhope Dodd.
Piety promoted in brief memorials and dying expressions of some of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers; the tenth part, to which is prefixed an historical account of the precedmg parts of volumes, and of their several compilers and editors, 2nd edition, 1811.
Family
In 1776 Bevan married Mary Plumstead, who also became a Quaker minister. They had no children.[2]
^Powell, J. H. “
Robert Proud, Pennsylvania’s First Historian”, in Pennsylvania History, Vol. XIII, No. 2, April 1946. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The Free Library of Pennsylvania, 1946, p. 90 (retrieved online August 4, 2018).