James Janeway (1636–1674) was a Puritan

Puritan

The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...

 minister and author who, after John Bunyan

John Bunyan

John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...

, had the widest and longest popularity as the author of works read by English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

-speaking children.

Life

Janeway was born at Lilley

Lilley

-Surname:* Charles Lilley, 19th-century chief justice in Queensland* Chris Lilley * Chris Lilley * David Lilley, Scottish footballer* Dick Lilley, English cricketer* James R. Lilley, 20th-century U.S. diplomat...

, in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, the son of William Janeway, a minister of Kershall, at the end of 1636. He was educated at Christ Church

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

, Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, graduating with a B.A. and spent time as a private tutor in a home, like many of the Puritans. He is listed as one of the "ejected" or "silenced" ministers by the Act of Uniformity 1662

Act of Uniformity 1662

The Act of Uniformity was an Act of the Parliament of England, 13&14 Ch.2 c. 4 ,The '16 Charles II c. 2' nomenclature is reference to the statute book of the numbered year of the reign of the named King in the stated chapter...

. The first evidence that he functioned as a non-conformist preacher is from the year 1665 at the time of the Great Plague of London

Great Plague of London

The Great Plague was a massive outbreak of disease in the Kingdom of England that killed an estimated 100,000 people, 20% of London's population. The disease is identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through a flea vector...

. He was then witness to the second great national calamity in the Great Fire of London

Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...

 in 1666.

In 1672 his congregation built a large meeting house for him near London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 at Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe is a residential district in inner southeast London, England and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is located on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping and the Isle of Dogs on the north bank, and is a part of the Docklands area...

, where it is said that But Janeway's popularity caused the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

 to threaten to have him shot. This was actually attempted on at least two occasions, on one of which a bullet pierced his hat but missed his body. Soldiers destroyed the building in which he preached, but his congregation simply built another, larger one big enough for all those who came to hear him preach.

Janeway was afflicted with melancholy

Clinical depression

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...

, contracted tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

, and died in his 38th year. All of his five brothers died of tuberculosis before the age of 40. He was buried in St Mary Aldermanbury

St Mary Aldermanbury

St Mary Aldermanbury church in the City of London, is first mentioned in 1181 but was destroyed by the Great fire of London in 1666. Rebuilt in Portland stone by Sir Christopher Wren, it was again gutted by the Blitz in 1940, leaving only the walls...

 next to his father.

The book for which Janeway is most known is A Token for Children, in which he collected personal accounts of the conversions of a number of children under his pastoral care, and published it. In the introduction, Janeway asks, It became an effective evangelistic tool, and was the most widely read book in nurseries in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 next to the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 and Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. The New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 preacher Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather

Cotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...

 regarded that book so highly that he wrote his own version of it and called it A Token for the Children of New England.

Janeway also wrote: "Upon Earth: Jesus, The Best Friend in the Worst Times". He was among the signers of the 1673 Puritan Preface to the Scottish Metrical Psalms

Hymnbooks of the Church of Scotland

Decisions concerning the conduct of public worship in the Church of Scotland are entirely at the discretion of the parish minister. As a result, a wide variety of musical resources are used...

 and contributed one of the "Cripplegate

Cripplegate

Cripplegate was a city gate in the London Wall and a name for the region of the City of London outside the gate. The area was almost entirely destroyed by bombing in World War II and today is the site of the Barbican Estate and Barbican Centre...

 Sermons: Duties of Masters and Servants".

Janeway’s influence on Puritan thought lasted long after his death. Charles Haddon Spurgeon referred to Janeway’s works in his sermons on many occasions in the late 1800s.

Published works

• Heaven upon Earth; or the Best Friend in the Worst Times, 1670
• A Token for Children; In two parts, 1671
• Death Unstung; a Funeral Sermon for Thomas Mousley, an Apothecary
• Invisible Realities, demonstrated in the holy Life and Death of Mr. John Janeway, 1673.
• The Saints' Encouragement to Diligence in Christ's Service, 1673
• Legacy to his Friends; containing 27 famous Instances of God's providence in and about sea dangers and deliverances, 1674
• Saints' Memorials, 1674, edited by Edmund Calamy
  Edmund Calamy
  Edmund Calamy may refer to:* Edmund Calamy the Elder , English Puritan divine* Edmund Calamy the Younger, English Puritan divine, son of Edmund Calamy the Elder...
  
  , Joseph Caryl
  Joseph Caryl
  Joseph Caryl was an English Nonconformist divine.-Life:He was born in London, educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and graduated at Exeter College, Oxford, and became preacher at Lincoln's Inn. He frequently preached before the Long Parliament, and was a member of the Westminster Assembly in 1643...
  
   and Ralph Venning
  Ralph Venning
  Ralph Venning was an English nonconformist Christian.-Life:The son of Francis and Joan Venning, he was born in Devon, perhaps at Kingsteignton, about 1621. He was the first convert of George Hughes, the puritan vicar of Tavistock. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was...
  
  
• The Duties of Masters and Servants; a Sermon in supplement to Morning Exercises, 1674
• Man's last End; a Funeral Sermon on Ps. lxxxiv. 8, 1675
• The Murderer punished and pardoned ; with the Life and Death of T. Savage

External links

• Digital version of "A Token for Children"